Sometimes you might just like a salad for dinner. In fact, more often than not, you might just want a salad for dinner and that’s IT. But perhaps you have a family to feed… a family who doesn’t think SALAD is DINNER… a family who thinks salad is just a starter or a side dish. (I may be speaking from personal experience here!) In that case, you’d better beef up your salad and prove to that family that salad should not be overlooked as a dinner option. This Classic Cobb Salad will do the trick.
My your family couldn’t possibly look at this plate of goodies here and not see “dinner” written all over it, could they? I mean… there’s ham in there! And chicken! And even BACON!
… especially if you plan to accompany it with a little bit of homemade blue cheese salad dressing! Click over on the title to see how to make that (it’s very good). Let’s build this thing!
I like to mix red or green leaf lettuce with iceberg (for crunch!)
Sprinkle some chopped ham in there (just buy one of those small ham steaks in the same place you’d find pork/ham/bacon in your market) and cooked chicken too (I like to buy one breast and just sauté it in a skillet until it’s cooked through).
Add chopped tomatoes and chopped, cooked bacon. Fancy bacon (Applewood Smoked variety) is recommended… and delicious. For easy cooking and easy clean-up, BAKE your bacon- rather than fry it. I included instructions for how to do that in the recipe below.
Add avocado, blue cheese or gorgonzola crumbles and hard boiled eggs. If you’re interested in a method for making perfect hard-boiled eggs, I also included that tidbit in the recipe below. Serve the salad with blue cheese dressing on the side (or balsamic vinaigrette).
This recipe makes two very generous main dish servings. It’s likely to fill up even the grumpiest of family members who may lean toward griping about “salad for dinner.” But if you’re concerned about the possibility of rolled eyes and complaints of an empty stomach, serve it up with a couple of hunks of French or sourdough bread too.
My husband ACTUALLY liked this salad for his “dinner.” And it was served with no complaints or grumbling whatsoever. Mission accompli!
Classic Cobb Salad
Ingredients
- 5 cups iceberg lettuce, chopped
- 5 cups red or green leaf lettuce, chopped
- 1 cup chopped, cooked ham
- 1 cup chopped, cooked chicken
- ⅔ cup blue cheese or gorgonzola crumbles
- 6 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
- 4 large hard boiled eggs, sliced
- 2 medium avocados, peeled, pitted and sliced
- 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
Instructions
- For pretty presentation, mix lettuces and divide them between two large plates or bowls.
- Layer the remaining ingredients into rows, dividing between the two plates.
- Serve with (classic) blue cheese dressing on the side. I like this balsamic dressing too.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This looks like a lot of calories though , won’t one or 2 meats do?
Sure- this is a classic cobb, so all are included here.
This looks delicious!
I’ve been thinking about changing my daily dinner routine and this salad looks like great idea to make some changes. Really nice!
This looks so good I wish I could make it right now….for breakfast!
So gorgeous! I would happily gobble this up for lunch or dinner. I mean it has bacon after all. 🙂
Cobb is a great salad and I’d like to nominate you for an Oscar for the most perfect boiled eggs evahhh!!!
gotta love a good cobb salad!!!