My VIRAL Chili Crisp Caesar Pasta Salad | Vegan & Beginner-Friendly

This is going to be the pasta salad of the season, okay? Hello friends and welcome back to my channel. I'm really excited that you're here and I'm very excited to be sharing today's video, which I was inspired to create a video that is solely dedicated to my viral. And I say it's viral because it went crazy on Instagram. It went crazy on TikTok, but it's my viral chili crunch Caesar pasta salad, which sounds like a chef's kiss and it tastes really, really good. And now that the sun is starting to come out, it's warming up outside. That means it is pasta salad season. So if you are planning to have friends over, host family, all the things, or maybe you just want to make this for yourself for meal prep, this is going to be a pasta salad you are going to love because it is so good. And it brings together so many different flavors. You have the chili crunch oil, the Caesar salad dressing and the pasta. You can't go wrong with that combination. And this is a very simple, easy but flavorful recipe. And the only cooking you have to do is for the pasta. So honestly, anybody can make it. As long as you don't miss a pasta. Okay. And let's go ahead and go through the ingredients we're going to need for the pasta. First things first, because this is a pasta salad, of course you are going to need pasta. I would recommend anything that has curves, ridges, because those types of noodles really allow a sauce to get caught in it. And I'm going to be using this shape of noodle. It is called a fusilli noodle, but you could also try this with a cavatappi noodle as well. I typically like to use a high protein pasta for this recipe, mainly because if I don't decide to add additional protein to it, I'll still get protein through just enjoying the pasta salad on its own. So if you want to try the pasta brand that I'm using, I'll have a link in the description box for you to check out. And then next up are our greens. I like to use romaine lettuce as well as kale. In the next section of ingredients, this is the sauce. This is what makes up the flavor in this recipe. Now the sauce or the dressing for the salad does consist of a handful of ingredients, but the great thing about it is that you can find all of these at most local grocery stores. The first ingredient we're going to be using for the salad dressing is hummus. You can make it on your own or you can purchase it from the grocery store. Like I did this time. In the event you don't like hummus or you just don't want to use it, you could also use plant-based mayo in its place. Now, again, this is a vegan Caesar salad dressing, which means we need to have all the flavors that a true Caesar salad dressing has. And maybe you didn't know this, but a traditional Caesar salad dressing contains anchovies. However, this is a vegan recipe, so we won't be using any, but in order to get that anchovy salty taste, we're going to be adding capers. The next ingredient that's going to help us achieve that true Caesar salad dressing taste is vegan Worcestershire sauce. I keep trying vegan W sauce. Okay. The next ingredient we're going to need for our salad dressing is Dijon mustard. Don't use yellow mustard Dijon only. Now, if you're not new here, you already knew I was going to have some nutritional yeast in this recipe, right? Yes. Typically in plant-based or vegan recipes, it's used to add a nice cheesy or nutty taste to a meal. If you don't want to use nutritional yeast or you don't have it, but maybe you have some vegan Parmesan or regular Parmesan. If that's what you eat, you can use Parmesan in its place for this specific recipe. The next ingredient is going to be garlic or garlic powder, the juice of a lemon and last, but certainly not least, this is what adds that extra layer of flavor to the salad dressing. We're going to add chili crunch, chili crisp, whatever you call it. Just don't forget it. It is so delicious in this recipe. Now be wary. It does have a kick to it. If you can only tolerate a little bit of spice, just dial it back a little bit. It's an oil-based condiment that has a mix of shallots, garlic, red pepper flakes, and a few other ingredients. And this is a sauce that's typically used in Chinese cuisine. I have learned that you want to be very selective on the chili crisp or chili crunch that you use just to ensure the true authenticity of it. Now, let's go ahead and put this dressing together. You might be wondering, why is she starting the pasta already? It's because we're making pasta salad. And we want to allow the pasta time to cool before we add the salad dressing and our leafy greens. For the dressing, we're going to go ahead and start by roughly chopping our capers and either finely chopping or grating our garlic. Try to get it as finely chopped as possible. 3 fourths cup of hummus, then half a teaspoon of Dijon mustard juice from half of a lemon, one teaspoon of vegan W sauce at the capers and garlic. And then one fourth cup of nutritional yeast or vegan Parmesan, some warm water to just help thin everything out. Okay, next I'm about to add the chili crisp, but don't forget this stuff is spicy. If you like chili crisp, I recommend two tablespoons, but if you are new to chili crisp or you're not a big fan of too much spice, I would say dial it back to maybe one tablespoon or even less and go ahead and whisk everything up. Be sure to keep the warm water close by in case you need to add more to thin it out, which I probably will. Y'all, this dressing is so delicious and I cannot wait for you to try it out. At this point, go ahead and give the dressing a taste test. See if there's any adjustments that you want to make. I went ahead and drained my noodles. The only thing left to do is to chop up the leafy greens. You can use however much of each of these ingredients you prefer and go ahead and massage the kale so that it's tender once we add everything else to it. And this is what massaging the kale looks like and is nothing fancy. Just rub it with your hands. You can tell that it already kind of went down in size and that's because we massaged it. Okay. Our greens are good to go. Our salad dressing is good to go and our pasta is done. All that's left to do is assemble. I also like to grate a little vegan cheese in here. I'll have the brand that I'm using linked in the description box, but again, this is completely optional. It still tastes delicious without it. You're probably wondering what else can I serve with this? The last time I made it, I had it with roasted chickpeas. I just tossed the chickpeas in a little bit of olive oil, seasoned them with like some salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and popped them in the oven on 400 degrees until they were crispy. I've also enjoyed this with crispy tofu. Listen, I cannot wait for you to try this pasta salad. I think you are truly going to enjoy it. I'll have this recipe linked in the description box. If you have made it, because I know some of y'all follow me on Instagram and TikTok, please hype this recipe up in the comments because more people need to try this and they need to see this video. And again, in the description box, you can also find links to the brands that I recommend you check out to make the salad. But thank you so much for watching this video. I truly hope that you enjoyed this. Hope that you make it for yourself. And if you do decide to meal prep this, save the dressing for the side. But thank you so much for being here and watching this video. Give it a thumbs up if you plan to try this recipe or you just like this video and I will see you in the next one. Bye.