North Indian Chef Kunal Kapur's Veg Caesar Salad Crunches With Flavor

Summary: North Indian Chef Kunal Kapur's Veg Caesar Salad crunches with flavor in an anchovy- and egg-free vegetarian version of Classic Caesar Salad.

"Kunal with Knife," Nov. 1, 2018: Chefkunal, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

North Indian Chef Kunal Kapur's Veg Caesar Salad crunches with flavor in a Classic Caesar Salad-inspired vegetarian version without anchovies and eggs.

Caesar Salad's origin traces back to 1924 in northwestern Mexico's Baja California state. Italian immigrant restauranteur Cesare "Caesar" Cardini (Feb. 24, 1896-Nov. 3, 1956) created his elegantly simple salad recipe in his restaurant, Caesar's Restaurant, in Tijuana.

Chef Cesare decorated his salad's base of torn romaine lettuce leaves with garlic-toasted croutons, grated Parmesan cheese and coddled eggs. Worcestershire sauce dressed the salad.

The main misperception about the original recipe entails attributing anchovy flavor and texture to the presence of anchovy fillets or anchovy paste on the ingredient list. The salad's mistaken association with anchovy fillets or paste derives from the anchovy specks in the salad's fermented Worcestershire sauce.

In the 100 years since its creation, Caesar Salad has achieved global popularity. Caesar Salad's easy preparation and accessible, appealing ingredients have ensured the recipe's acceptance and appreciation and also have encouraged a plethora of non-vegetarian, vegan and vegetarian variations.

North Indian Chef Kunal Kapur acknowledges Caesar Salad as world famous and menu conspicuous in his June 23, 2021, YouTube and Aug. 23, 2021, Facebook videos. He presents his Veg Caesar Salad as a vegetarian recipe with egg-free dressing and no anchovies that resolves Classic Caesar Salad's anchovy and egg problems for vegetarians.

Chef Kunal identifies romaine lettuce leaves, croutons and dressing as the essential elements in his Veg Caesar Salad. He freshly constructs the croutons and dressing for the recipe.

The croutons call for 1 cup of bite-sized, diced bread. Chef Kunal notes the difficulty of cutting fresh bread and suggests the acceptable alternatives of dried or stale bread. Then the bread cubes are placed in a baking tray.

A small clove of garlic is chopped, equivalent to 1 teaspoon, and dropped into a small bowl. Two tablespoons of olive oil are spooned into the bowl. The garlic pieces and olive oil are stirred together and then are drizzled over the bread cubes in the baking tray.

The baking tray is placed in an oven set at 150 degrees Celsius (300 degrees Fahrenheit). They will toast until they are lightly crisp.

On the video, approximately two minutes elapse between the tray's entry into and exit from the oven. The recipe as it appears on his website, Chef Kunal Kapoor, suggests 15 to 20 minutes at 100 degrees C. (212 degrees F.). My family's version of Veg Caesar Salad, which resembles Chef Kunal's recipe, requires at most five or eight minutes.

While the croutons crispen, Chef Kunal makes the dressing in a small, portable blender. The dressing calls for 1/4 cup vegetarian mayonnaise, 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1 teaspoon mustard paste, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 clove of garlic, black pepper powder and salt to taste and 1/2 cup olive oil.

For the dressing, Chef Kunal notes preferences and substitutions. He uses a French mustard, Dijon, for the mustard paste. Any hard cheese may be substituted for Parmesan cheese.

The dressing's ingredients are blended until smooth. A little olive oil may be added if, according to preference, the dressing blends thickly. The dressing is transferred to a squeeze bottle.

The garlic- and olive oil-seasoned bread cubes exit from the oven as crisp, lightly browned cubes. Their rattling sound as Chef Kunal shakes the baking tray attests to their readiness. The croutons are set near the dressing for assembling the salad.

Chef Kunal arranges the romaine lettuce leaves on the serving plate. He does not tear them, which is consistent with Chef Cesare's original recipe.

The bed of romaine leaves is squirted aesthetically with the squeezed dressing. Then the croutons are placed on the romaine leaves. The final topping is a handful (about half a dozen) of small, thin cheese slices, which have been shaped by a peeler.

Chef Kunal's Veg Caesar Salad provides two servings. The time from start to finish is estimated at 15 minutes, according to the recipe's card on the Chef Kunal Kapur website.

Chef Kunal presents his Veg Caesar Salad recipe primarily in Hindi, interspersed with English, in his June 23, 2021, YouTube and Aug. 23, 2021, Facebook videos. English subtitles are available and helpful. Also, each ingredient is captioned in English, separately from subtitles, on the screen.

The June 23, 2021, YouTube video (immediately below) offers, as an option under the three dots menu, to "show transcript" of Chef Kunal's English comments, with their timestamps. Also, the ingredients are listed in the "Show More" option located under the channel name, Kunal Kapur.

The "Show More" option gives five timestamps for Chef Kunal's presentation. The timestamps are listed as 00:00 Introduction; 01:24 Recipe begins; 01:55 Croutons; 04:05 Caesar Dressing (Veg); 06:21 Assembling Salad.

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

"Kunal with Knife," Nov. 1, 2018: Chefkunal, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kunal_with_Knife.jpg

Kunal Kapur, "Veg Caesar Salad Recipe / Eggless Cesar Dressing / Healthy Veg Salad / Kunal Kapur Healthy Recipes," via YouTube June 23, 2021, @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qLK9SqlMig

For further information:

Kapur, Chef Kunal. "Veg Caesar Salad: Crunchy Romaine Lettuce With a Veg Version of the Caesar Dressing." Chef Kunal Kapoor > Recipes.
Available @ https://www.chefkunalkapur.com/recipe/veg-caesar-salad/

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Kunal Kapur. "The BEST Veg Caesar Salad with Egg-Free Dressing / Veg Salad Recipe / Kunal Kapur." Facebook. Aug. 23, 2021.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/thekunalkapur/videos/the-best-veg-caesar-salad-with-egg-free-dressing-veg-salad-recipe-kunal-kapur-he/544746993400447/ Available @ https://www.facebook.com/thekunalkapur/videos/544746993400447/

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Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89uqBIbvhLI

Kunal Kapur. "Veg Caesar Salad Recipe / Eggless Cesar Dressing / Healthy Veg Salad / Kunal Kapur Healthy Recipes." YouTube. June 23, 2021.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qLK9SqlMig

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Available @ https://www.facebook.com/chefkunalfanpage/posts/1182221971850137

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Available @ https://www.facebook.com/chefkunalfanpage/posts/1068019203270415

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Available @ https://www.facebook.com/chefkunalfanpage/posts/1184306808308320

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