Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Pseudo-Cobb Salad


I love hearty salads. Taco salad, salade niçoise, Caesar salad, chef's salad, Greek salad, the list goes on and on. A good salad could literally bring me to my weakened knees.

However, I'm pretty diva-licious about my salads. I have to have at least two things on my salad: (1) a honkin' portion of protein, in any form, and (2) salad dressing galore. However, my two salad prerequisites often mean that I'm defeating the purpose of eating salad--the health reason. Therefore, I decided to take one of my favorite unhealthy salads, the Cobb salad, and give it a "healthy" flair. This meant that I needed to omit the blue cheese, bacon, and perhaps chicken meat.

After whipping together the other Cobb salad ingredients, adding a sprinkling dried chives, and drizzling red wine vinegar over the greens, I felt that my ultimate version of the Cobb salad looked like the epitome of healthiness. I was satisfied. (However, after consulting my health-oriented macrobiotic cookbook, I discovered to my chagrin that avocados and tomatoes are not macrobiotic-savvy foods. Oh well, I can't do the macrobiotic diet anyway.)


Pretty pleased with myself on making a nutritious salad, I decided to taste my healthy twist on the traditional Cobb salad. One taste, and... It tasted like I was eating raw forest foliage. Perhaps it was because I ate a big bite of watercress with no dressing.

With vigor, I threw down my salad fork and angrily stomped my way to the cabinets and fridge for some bacon bits, garlic butter croutons, and blue cheese dressing. Salad should not taste like a compost pile of weed trimmings! It should taste like a deconstructed smothered chipped beef sandwich!

But before I made it to the pantry, the calming voice of reason sounded in my head. Based on the hypnotic voice in my head, I picked up the "low-fat" blue cheese dressing instead. When I arrived back at my place setting, I just added a bit of dressing to the salad, and could definitely say that this spruced up my meal significantly.

If you are interested in the way that I made this Cobb salad, check out the recipe below.

Pseudo-Cobb Salad, The Healthier Version
1 head of red leaf lettuce, washed and cut or ripped into bite-sized pieces
1/4 bundle of watercress, washed and cut or ripped into bite-sized pieces
1 large avocado (or 2 small avocados), peeled and diced
2 whole chicken eggs, boiled and diced
2 large tomatoes, cored and diced
1 pinch of dried chives, optional
1 tbsp of red wine vinegar, optional
several tbsps of low-fat or non-fat blue cheese dressing, to taste

In a medium to small bowl, whisk together the dressing, vinegar, and dried chives. In a large bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients, drizzling the whisked liquid ingredients over the greens. Toss well. Alternatively, you could arrange all of the salad ingredients on a plate into sections (e.g. egg section, avocado section, tomato section, greens section) and allow your guests to drizzle on the dressing to their own liking. Serve and enjoy.

For the best Cobb salad recipe, check out this link, for the inventor of Cobb salad's recipe! Do you have any healthy salad recipes? Feel free to share your link in the comments section!

11 comments:

  1. Hi PE - Those boiled eggs look wonderful!

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  2. This looks great, cobb salad is my favorite type of salad!

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  3. A healthy and delicious salad!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  4. LOL!! fun read.
    here's mine
    fresh spinach, hard boiled quail eggs,half a diced apple, raisins, walnuts a shredded carrot.
    dressing virgin olive oil and soy sauce w. a dash of tabasco.

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  5. I love Cobb Salads and yours looks great. Love the photos! Vibrant!

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  6. Cobb salads are one of my favorites. Yours looks so delicious. Love the colors.

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  7. I know what you are saying. I have to have a good healthy sized splurt of salad dressing on a salad. I wish I didn't, but that's the law according to Melinda.

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  8. How do you boil your eggs so the yolks remain yellow and vibrant? Mine always turn out greenish. Still edible, but not so appetizing.

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  9. Thank you KirkK!

    I adore cobb salad Sarah, thanks!

    It sure is healthy and delicious Rosa's Yummy Yums!

    Ooo, spinach, quail eggs, apples, raisins, walnuts, and carrots sounds sort of like a Waldorf salad, but your spicy and exotic dressing sounds amazing Neki Desu, thank you so much for sharing!

    Thank you Chez US, my photo could be better, but from you two, that is a huge compliment!

    You have amazing taste Donna-FFW, I love colorful cobb salads too!

    If that is the law according to Melinda, then I want to live in Melindaland!

    I just bring them to a boil, turn off the heat, and wait five minutes before taking them out of the water for a really eggy and moist yolk. Otherwise, I bring them to a boil, and leave them on high heat for five minutes for a completely "cooked through" yolk, with no green tint Christina Kim! So both require a five minute wait.

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  10. I love cobb salads too, although I don't eat it too often because of the bacon. But I think it's the blue cheese dressing that makes the difference, so I think you shouldn't skimp on that, even using the low-fat dressing is better than not at all. Still, really fresh ingredients in your photo!

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  11. I tried skimping on that Chef Ben, and I was miserable! You're right about the necessity of blue cheese in cobb salads.

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