Cobb Salad

Cobb Salad is make with crispy lettuce, juice tomatoes, avocados, hearty olives and bacon bites. Wait until you taste the Cobb Salad dressing – it is a classic dressing that is made from olive oil, vinegar and mustard, stirred together and you are ready to eat in no time.

Feel like in a restaurant and make everything, cheap, delicious and easy at home. Who doesn’t love or want this? I guess we are all ready for this Cobb Salad recipe.

What I do love about Cobb Salad is that it is so versatile: you can simply use whatever ingredients you want and have on hand. Just think of because you can do tomatoes, avocados, bacon or chicken bits (I use plant based and totally up to your gusto). As long everything is delicious, it is a great meal that you will always come back to.

All that’s left for me is a Cobb Salad dressing and friends I can tell you I keep it really simple and easy.

Here is what’s in the dressing

Olive oil as a base adds a hearty and savory flavor. Any other oil will work, but the flavor will be less robust and intense.

I also like to use red vinegar, because it has a fruity and intense aroma that is really incomparable to the other dressing ingredients.

Garlic and oregano add a lot of flavor and freshness. Really good and a great pair of flavor.

Mustard and sugar: You can tell we have a little bit of acid  in our vinaigrette from mustard and vinegar. Sugar is great because it adds a touch of sweetness that balances our acidity amazingly. Of course any other sweetener can be used.

What you need for this Cobb Salad recipe

Besides the ingredients for the dressing, this recipe needs the following.

First, of course some lettuce: romaine or iceberg lettuce is great here or you can use a mix.

As I mentioned above, I really like the combination of vegan chicken and bacon bites. Taken together these are great and have a really savory, meaty flavor just as you find in a classic Cobb Salad.

Tomatoes, cucumber, avocados: these are a great addition to any salad and for real a great combination of flavors. You know everything is better with avocados.

Many people love onions, and so do I, but here I decide to go with shallots. Because they are milder than onions, but still add a great crunch to our Cobb salad.

A hearty Blue cheese adds a lot of heartiness and I use a vegan one, but you can use whatever you prefer.

Finally something that might not be a typical ingredient that you expected to find here. But I couldn’t resist adding sliced olives just as I do in my Taco Salad, the Easy Pasta Salad, or Chickpea Salad.

How to make Cobb Salad

Cook bacon and chicken: Start with heating oil in a skillet. Add the bacon bites and chicken and cook both for about 3 minutes until they get browned.

Prepare the dressing: Grab a mason jar and give the oil, mustard, sugar, vinegar, oregano, garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper to it. Shake until well combined. As an alternative, simply add everything to a bowl and mix until well combined.

Assemble: Rinse lettuce and dry it in a salad spinner or as I do use a clean kitchen towel and rub your salad dry carefully. 

Next, take a large plate and add the salad. Arrange other toppings like chicken, bacon, olives, tomatoes cucumbers, avocados, shallots, olives, and blue cheese. 

For the dressing I would suggest you give just 1/2 of it over the Cobb Salad. Use the other half just before serving.

Tips and tricks

You can enjoy leftovers, but I can tell they won’t any last for 3 days.

If you want to have some variation, think about using my Thousand Island Dressing, the Ranch Dressing or Catalina Dressing. 

It is such a versatile recipe that you can easily add any dressing you can think of.

Tag me on Instagram or Facebook for remakes of the Cobb Salad.

Enjoy, Florian.