Stunning presentation aside, Cobb salad has all the markers of a powerhouse meal, including eggs, avocados, tomato, and lean chicken — we just had to do something about all that bacon and cheese.
We were sad to sacrifice bacon’s smoky flavor until we tried sauteing shiitake mushrooms with smoked paprika and chili powder. Now we had smokiness and even some umami meatiness without the saturated fat and preservatives. Using kale in place of romaine upped the nutritional ante, and radicchio contributed beautiful color.
For the dressing, just a bit of blue cheese whisked with yogurt, garlic, and lemon juice provided the tangy blue cheese flavor we expected. We tossed some with our greens and drizzled the rest over our still-classic, yet mindfully updated, Cobb salad.
SUPER COBB SALAD
Servings: 6
Start to finish: 45 minutes
8 ounces organic boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of all visible fat and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons expeller-pressed canola oil
10 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced thin
1/8 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/8 teaspoon chili powder
8 ounces kale, stemmed and cut into 1-inch pieces (8 cups)
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3/4 cup organic plain low-fat yogurt
3 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 small head radicchio (3 ounces), cored and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 hard-cooked large organic eggs, quartered
1 avocado, halved, pitted, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
6 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved
Nutrition information per serving: 223 calories; 108 calories from fat; 12 g fat ( 3 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 125 mg cholesterol; 322 mg sodium; 12 g carbohydrate; 5 g fiber; 4 g sugar; 19 g protein.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.