Our Favorite Spring Cobb Salad Recipe
We took everything we love about classic Cobb salads, and swapped some Cobb Salad ingredients for their springtime counterparts to make this gorgeous spring cobb salad. Cobb Salad usually has avocado, tomatoes, blue cheese, chicken and rich, creamy dressing—we use Homemade Buttermilk Ranch, but Green Goddess Dressing is good, too. This Cobb recipe demanded a lighter dressing, so we went with sweet, tart honey-Dijon, but the lemon-chive dressing from our Spring Salad With Barley would also be nice! For more springy dinner recipes, check out our Roasted Salmon with Spring Pesto.
Fresh Spring Cobb Salad Ingredients
A pass through the springtime farmers market was all the inspiration we needed to take the idea of a classic Cobb salad and make it springy. Some things are the same as a Cobb salad—a big bed of lettuce, hard-cooked eggs, avocado—because it is still worthy of the name “Cobb” after all. But other than that, here are the most notable swaps:
Instead of chicken, this recipe uses ALL the spring veggies! Asparagus, snap peas and radishes.
Instead of blue cheese, use fresh goat cheese!
Instead of bacon, pancetta! Not all that different, but a little step up.
Instead of a heavy, creamy dressing, a homemade honey-Dijon vinaigrette.
Homemade Spring Cobb Salad Dressing Ingredients
- Olive oil
- White balsamic
- Lemon juice
- Garlic clove
- Dijon mustard
- Basil
- Mint
- Honey
How To Make A Perfect Spring Cobb Salad
Make some hard-boiled eggs. They’ll keep in the fridge for up to seven days, so you can do this way ahead of time if you’d like.
Whip up a batch of dressing! It can be made up to one week ahead of time, too.
Cook the pancetta on a baking sheet. Let it cool, and crumble it into salty little bits of awesome.
Prep all the veggies. Rinse the snap peas, crumble the goat cheese, slice the radishes with your favorite knife, and so on.
Assemble! Lay out a bed of lettuce, and top it with all of your gorgeous goodies and produce. Dress and serve.
Cobb Salad Tips + Tricks
You can prep a lot of this salad ahead of time, so that it makes for a really quick and easy dinner on busy weeknights. Make the dressing (it’ll keep for a week in the fridge), and hard-boil some eggs and you’ll be halfway to dinner.
A note on lettuce: we’re calling for a spring mix, which usually has arugula, endive, baby spinach and other young greens. But, any salad green that you love — or that looks freshest — will work. Butter lettuce? Heck yes! Radicchio even? Why not!
Like most salads, this Cobb salad does not keep well once you’ve dressed it — no freezing or storing this recipe, sadly.
More Dinner Salad Recipes To Try
Springtime Has Sprung!
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