Vegan Bloody Caesar

Day 10 of VeganMoFo….

I mentioned on last week’s post (Raw Chocolate Cherry Milkshake) that every Wednesday S&C is featuring a pick-me-up-and-get-me-to-the-weekend Hump Day Drink. This week’s is the Canadian classic cocktail: a Bloody Caesar. Celery salted citrus rim, hot sauce and seasonings all mixed with tomato juice with a hint of clam. Sounds gross right? But somehow when mixed all together just right, this savory drink is crave-able and dare I say refreshing? For the Americans reading this, a Bloody Caesar and a Bloody Mary are not the same thing. A Bloody Mary is made with tomato juice and a kosher salted rim while a Bloody Caesar is made with Clamato juice and a celery salt rim. Doesn’t sound too different from one another and I tried to love Bloody Mary’s when I went vegan but it just isn’t the same. The only restaurant I know that has a good vegan Caesar is Hogtown Vegan, located in Toronto.  I was on a mission to make my own perfect Caesar at home!

My bartender friend Maeghan makes the best Caesar I have ever had but she wouldn’t drink a thing in it [besides the vodka]. When I asked her for her recipe she told me that she has actually never had one but was happy to hear how well she makes them. Back to square one.

The “clam” component would have to be addressed first since I deemed this the huge difference between a Caesar (love!) and a Bloody Mary (meh?). When I made my Tunot Sandwiches, I used nori sheets to make the chickpea mixture taste fishy. Nori is roasted however so I used a handful of wakame (a seaweed) and soaked it in the tomato juice. Big mistake. Wakame needs to be rinsed and the water used to revive it drained through a fine mesh sieve. Plus tomato juice is a lot thicker than Clamato so the seaweed water helps with the consistency as well.

Next up was the Worcestershire sauce that is made with anchovies. There is a vegan Worcestershire sauce in existence but even I, living in a big city with many resources had a hard time finding it. The thing about this ingredient is the saltiness and its umami flavour profile. Thankfully there is another ingredient that boosts this flavour: tamari, which is much easier to find. I simply swapped it anchovy sauce for tamari and I loved it. A splash of citruses, hot sauce (Tabasco is the norm but I used Sriracha with delicious results) and celery salt and this vegan Caesar was ready to go. Mark who loves Caesars was my taste tester and he said it tastes fresher than any other Caesar he has had. Success!

How-To-Set-Up-A-Caesar

Step 1: Rub the rim of the serving glass with a lime wedge

Step 2: Swirl into the celery salt on the plate.

Step 3: Lightly tap any excess celery salt off the rim

Step 4: Add the ice and the celery stalk

Step 5: Pour in the good stuff and serve! (and try not to spill it)

I love Caesars at brunch because I was told that a brunch without a drink is just sad late breakfast. Ha-ha!

But this drink is good anytime since it has about 2 servings of vegetables per serving, Vitamin C to boot and minerals from the seaweed so drink up!