LAURA LEE ALICE
COOKS
®
Serves 2 to 4 servings
Cobb Salad
I have eaten a Cobb Salad at probably a dozen different restaurants over the years and none have been the same. It
is said that it was named after the owner of the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant, Robert Howard Cobb in 1938.
The chopped salad was supposedly laid out in neat rows on a salad plate with a version of a red wine vinaigrette.
Well, this is my version, sort of Southern style. It is made up of my favorite salad ingredients and a really good red wine
wine vinaigrette. Make it your salad by adding what you like. Hope you enjoy it!
Ingredients
• 1 lb mixed lettuce (your choice) washed, patted
dry and chopped
• 4 slices of a good bacon, cooked and chopped
• 1 tomato, sliced into wedges
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced neatly
• 2 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, cooked and
slicedacross the width
• ½ cup bleu cheese (or feta cheese) crumbles
• 1 medium avocado, chopped
• ½ cup canned chickpeas drained and rinsed*
• Red wine vinaigrette dressing (recipe below)
Instructions
1. Lightly toss the mixed lettuces with ¼ cup of the vinaigrette; set aside.
2. Arrange the lettuce on a large plate taking up about 1/3 at the side. Arrange the rest of the ingredients
in neat rows nest to the lettuce. Serve the remaining vinaigrette on the side.
Options
• ½ cup chopped, cooked ham
• ½ shredded cheddar cheese
* Use black beans, pintos or any firm bean
Red Wine Vinaigrette
The traditional French vinaigrette formula is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar. I start with that formula and change it little
by little until I get the taste that pleases my palette.
Ingredients
• ¾ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-2 tsp Dijon mustard
• ½ tsp sea salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp honey
Instructions
1. Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl*. Serve immediately
or refrigerate up to 2 weeks in a sealed container.
2. To make a smaller amount: 3 Tbsp olive oil, 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar, ½ clove garlic, ½ tsp Dijon mustard, pinch of
salt, dash of pepper and ½ tsp honey.
*Sometimes I use my immersion blender, the flavors tend to blend and stay together.
KEYWORDS
cobb salad, red wine vinaigrette
Recipes are like stories; they can change from person to person. Everyone has their idea of how a recipe should be, even
though it may have changed from the original. We will never know the true author of the original recipe, regardless of
what some may say. That's why I go back and look through the oldest cookbooks that I can find. Sometimes it's not the
recipe in the books that I find, but the tiny pieces of handwritten recipes and newspaper articles that are stuck within
the pages. That's where the real story is, finding those simple Southern recipes. -Mac