This time of year I start craving salads. The transition from Winter to Spring naturally encourages us to shift our tastes to a lighter fare (that is if we’re conscious about our inherent biological rhythms). I eat salads all year round, but I especially enjoy them in Spring and early Summer.

According to The Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson, the Latin word sal (which means ‘salt’) is derived from the Latin word salata, which translates as salted things.  Historically, raw vegetables were eaten with a dressing of oil, vinegar and salt— thus giving us the word salata, or salad.

Here’s another interesting tidbit about the origin of the word salad from An A-Z of Food and Drink, by John Ayto: “Etymologically, the key ingredient of salad, and the reason for its getting its name, is the dressing. The Romans were enthusiastic eaters of salads, many of theirs differing hardly at all from present-day ones—a simple selection of raw vegetables…—and they always used a dressing of some sort: oil, vinegar, and often brine. And hence the name salad, which comes from Vulgar Latin Herba Salata, literally salted herb.”

I think we all agree, what you put on the salad is often more important that the salad itself. I’ve seen many exquisite salad ingredients completely ruined by a bad dressing. I’ve also seen the most simple vegetable elevated to a devine standing with just the right amount of the right dressing.

This recipe for a Caesar salad dressing is adapted from Raw, by Charlie Trotter and Roxanne Klein. Which, by the way, is a beautiful book with some outstanding recipes. This dressing is rich and creamy, and tastes absolutely fantastic. Oh, and did I mention, it’s super nutritious too. Check out the Ingredient Notes below for more information about some of these super-nutritious ingredients.

Ingredients

1 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic
2 medium celery stalks (chopped into 1″ pieces)
1/2 cup filtered water
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons light miso paste*
1/4 cup shoyu, tamari, or Bragg’s Liquid Amino Acids
4 fresh Medjool dates*
1 tablespoon dulse flakes*
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

*See Ingredient notes below

Directions

Place all the ingredients in a high-speed blender and process until everything is blended and has a creamy consistency. NOTE: A good quality blender will be helpful. If you find your blender doesn’t do a good job of completely liquefying all the ingredients, try chopping everything more finely first and smashing your garlic, rather than putting in the whole cloves.

Storage

Store blended dressing in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Ingredient notes

Dulse is a a reddish-purple sea vegetable that is rich in iron, iodine and calcium.₁

Medjool dates are rich in niacin, potassium, calcium and magnesium, with an especially high concentration of iron.₂

Miso is a fermented soy bean paste that has been used in Asia for centuries. Miso offers many health benefits, the most notable being that it contains beneficial enzymes, similar to yogurt, that are very good for digestion. It’s also an alkaline substance with helps balance the body and increase resistance to disease.₃

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1. Hass, Elson, M.D. (1992). Staying Healthy with Nutrition. Berekely, CA: Celestial Arts. p.316
2. Hass, Elson, M.D. (1992). Staying Healthy with Nutrition. Berekely, CA: Celestial Arts. p.306
3. Jacobs, Dana. (2001). Amazing Soy. New York: William Morrow. p.21