Lightened-Up Cobb Salad

A healthy spin on a traditional Cobb salad, this perfectly balanced meal is highlighted by juicy summer tomatoes, blue cheese, creamy avocado, and tender-yolked eggs

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Cobb salad often gets a bad rap, and for good reason: Between the chicken (sometimes breaded and fried), dressing (often buttermilk-based), bacon, and blue cheese, calorie and saturated fat counts can go sideways fast. 



Enter my lightened-up take on a Cobb salad, which I like to call a “Cobbless Cobb Salad.” It excludes the Cobb’s heftier ingredients like, yet I’ve made sure it has retained the other crucial elements that create a perfectly balanced meal: juicy summer tomatoes, pungent blue cheese, creamy avocado, and tender-yolked eggs. By all means, you can add poached, baked, or grilled chicken back in if you like, to make it more substantial. Or do what we sometimes do, and sprinkle on a handful of chopped smoked almonds, which mimic the effect of bacon’s smokiness and crunch in a delightful vegetarian format.

 

 

Recipe Details: Cobbless Cobb Salad

 

From Catherine Newman

Makes: 4 servings

Total carbohydrates: 10 grams per serving

Hands-on time: 30 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

 

Recipe Notes

 

You will likely have dressing left over from this recipe; it will keep in the refrigerator for at least a week.

 

If you don’t have fresh garlic, 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder will work as a substitute, and torn fresh basil is a nice stand-in if you can’t find fresh chives.

 

Ingredients

 

4 eggs
1/4 cup white or red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 clove of garlic, finely minced or put through a garlic press
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 head of lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces, or 1 (8-ounce) bag of salad greens
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and sliced
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
2 tablespoons chopped chives

 

Instructions

 

Cook the eggs: Place the eggs in a small pot and cover them with a couple inches of water. Bring them to a boil over high heat (I put a stone or glass marble in the pot if I’m likely to forget them; it will rattle when the water starts to boil), then cover the pot, turn off the burner, and let the eggs sit for exactly 7 minutes. Empty the eggs into a colander and run cold water over them until they are no longer warm to the touch, then peel them and cut them in half.
Make the dressing: Whisk together the vinegar, oil, garlic, and salt, (You can also shake them together in a lidded jar.)
In a large bowl, toss the lettuce with a couple of tablespoons of dressing to taste.
Arrange the eggs, tomatoes, and avocado around the lettuce, and drizzle those with dressing as well. Top with blue cheese and fresh herbs and serve.