Thanksgiving Cobb Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
Crisp romaine lettuce is topped with rows of carrots, apples, hard boiled eggs, cucumber, blue cheese, red onion, dried cranberries, and pepitas. A Thanksgiving twist on an iconic American salad.
If you’re looking for a Thanksgiving side dish that doesn’t take up precious oven space, I have a deliciously healthy idea for you — Thanksgiving Cobb Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing. One of the things I love most about this classic American salad is the opportunity it offers to create your own unique version by incorporating seasonal ingredients.
Curious about why it’s called a “Cobb” salad, I did a little digging into its history. This amazing salad is said to have been created in the 1930s by Robert “Bob” Cobb, the owner of the Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles. Supposedly, after a long day, Cobb began milling through his restaurant’s kitchen looking for something to eat. He gathered up ingredients that were left in the refrigerator (lettuce, roast chicken, avocado, hard boiled eggs, bacon, tomatoes, and blue cheese), added some dressing, and an innovative and satisfying salad was born. I’m not sure how Mr. Cobb arranged his first “kitchen sink” of a salad, but the iconic Cobb salad that we know and love today is meticulously arranged in rows, creating a very colorful display.
Today’s recipe showcases a few of the classic Cobb salad ingredients (crisp romaine, hard boiled eggs, and blue cheese), along with some fall–inspired toppings including julienned carrots, dried cranberries, thinly sliced red onion, pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), and of course, sliced apples.
While I love adding sliced or chopped apples to salads, I’m always concerned about the browning of the flesh once the apple is cut and exposed to air. The browning doesn’t really affect the flavor of the apple; it’s more of an appearance issue. To combat this problem, I tested a variety of apples and anti-browning soaking methods to improve their appearance.
For test number one, I purchased eight different apple varieties — Cosmic Crisp®, EnvyTM, Gala, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Rave®, and SweeTango®. I sliced each apple and let the slices sit at room temperature for two hours. While they all looked surprisingly good after that time period, the Cosmic Crisp® apple had the least amount of browning, followed by the Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, Gala, Granny Smith, Rave®, EnvyTM, and SweeTango®.
For experiment number two, I tested four different anti-browning soaking liquids for the apple slices — plain water, orange juice, pineapple juice, and a honey and water mixture (2 tablespoons honey mixed with 1 cup water). I cut Cosmic Crisp® apples and submerged the slices in each of the liquids for three minutes. After the soaking period, I patted the slices dry with paper towel, stacked them on top of each other, wrapped them in plastic wrap, and stored them in an airtight container for 24 hours in the refrigerator. Each soaking solution did a fantastic job at preventing browning. So, if you want to slice the apples for this salad in advance, use any of the soaking liquids mentioned above and follow the storage procedure. Your apple slices will look freshly cut whenever you’re ready to assemble this yummy Cobb salad.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Darlene
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THANKSGIVING COBB SALAD with POPPY SEED DRESSING
Yield: 8 servings
Serving Size: about 1 cup
Prep: 25 minutes
Ready: 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS
Poppy Seed Dressing
1/2 cup plain low-fat Greek yogurt (such as FAGE Total 2%)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
3 tablespoons golden balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon finely minced onion
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Salad
6 cups lightly packed chopped romaine lettuce
1 cup chopped English cucumber
1 cup julienned or shredded carrot
1 cup sliced apple (Cosmic Crisp, Pink Lady, or Honeycrisp work well)
2 large hard boiled eggs, quartered
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese or gorgonzola
1/3 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/3 cup dried cranberries or dried cherries
3 tablespoons pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds)
DIRECTIONS
To prepare salad dressing, add yogurt, sugar, mayonnaise, vinegar, onion, poppy seeds, mustard powder, and salt to a bowl and whisk until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.
When ready to serve the salad, place washed and dried chopped romaine lettuce on a serving platter. Arrange chopped cucumber, julienned carrots, sliced apple, hard boiled egg quarters, blue cheese, sliced red onion, and dried cranberries in rows on top of lettuce. Sprinkle top of salad with pepitas. Drizzle top of salad with poppy seed dressing or serve dressing on the side.
Nutrition Information per Serving
180 Calories, 9 g Total fat, 3 g Saturated fat, 0 g Trans fat, 56 mg Cholesterol, 180 mg Sodium, 19 g Total carbohydrate, 2 g Dietary fiber, 16 g Total sugars, 6 g Added sugars, 7 g Protein, 0 mcg (0%) Vitamin D, 93 mg (8%) Calcium, 1 mg (6%) Iron, 115 mg (2%) Potassium
© 2024 RECIPES MADE HEALTHY BY DARLENE ZIMMERMAN, MS, RD LLC
Beautiful Salad!