I am totally obsessed with this salad right now. It’s a great big healthy delicious party-in-your-mouth.
Most Cobb Salads are topped with processed deli meats (hello excess sodium and preservatives), bacon (delicious, but not good for you), and dairy like blue cheese and ranch. My version is way better for you and I have to say, I think actually tastes better, too.
Simply choose the ingredients you want to use and arrange them in a shallow bowl like the photo. Drizzle with your favorite healthy dressing and you’ve got a delicious salad that you’ll want to eat over and over again.
Here’s how I build it: start with a wide, shallow bowl and arrange little piles of cooked quinoa with shredded purple cabbage, halved grape tomatoes, arugula with chopped dates, thin cucumber slices, a hard-boiled egg, microgreens, hummus, spiralized carrots and chopped spring mix. Set half an avocado filled with pumpkin and sunflower seeds in the middle, then drizzle with 2 tablespoons of your favorite healthy dressing.
Tips For Making Healthy Salads You’ll Crave
- Pay attention to the texture of each ingredient as it can make or break your salad. For instance, chop your store-bought/pre-washed greens and take time to spiralize or shred your carrots. A big pile of lettuce with a handful of baby carrots makes for a pretty boring meal. Play with different textures and arrangements to keep things interesting.
- Add something crunchy that is still healthy, like raw nuts and/or raw seeds.
- Something sweet always rounds out a salad. Add a little healthy sweetness with a few chopped Medjool dates, unsweetened dried cranberries, chopped apple, or even berries. Avoid sugar-filled dried fruit to keep your salad healthy.
- Use a healthy homemade dressing; they’re full of flavor and health benefits and cost less than store-bought dressing.
- Make it pretty! You eat with your eyes first. It just takes a minute or two to arrange the ingredients in a shallow bowl and it makes all the difference.
One of the best parts about this type of meal is that you can find just about everything here on your natural grocery store’s salad bar. When I’m in a pinch I’ll just build it right off the salad bar, buy an avocado and bring it home and arrange it on the plate.
If you have time to think ahead, buy enough of each ingredient for 3-4 meals. Chop or prepare each item for an easy grab-and-mix meal a few days later.
Healthy Cobb Salad FAQs
What’s in a traditional Cobb salad?
A classic Cobb salad has rows of chicken, bacon, hard-boiled egg, avocado, tomato and blue cheese over chopped lettuce. My version keeps the egg, avocado and tomatoes and swaps the rest for quinoa, hummus, seeds and lots of colorful veggies.
Is this Cobb salad vegetarian?
It is. There’s no meat or bacon, and the hard-boiled egg, hummus and quinoa give it plenty of staying power. Leave out the egg and use a vegan dressing if you want it completely vegan.
What’s the best healthy dressing for Cobb salad?
Any homemade dressing you love works here. My favorites on this salad are Honey Mustard Dressing, Dairy-Free Ranch and Easy Balsamic Dressing.
Can I meal prep this salad?
Prep enough of each ingredient for 3 or 4 salads: cook the quinoa, boil the eggs, and chop or spiralize the veggies. Keep everything in separate containers, then cut the avocado and arrange your bowl right before you eat.
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Health Coach Cobb Salad Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 1
Description
A colorful, vegetarian Cobb salad with quinoa, a hard-boiled egg, avocado, hummus, dates and lots of fresh veggies, arranged in a shallow bowl and drizzled with your favorite healthy dressing. Ingredients are listed in clockwise order in the photo above.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup cooked quinoa, topped with a few pieces of shredded purple cabbage from the salad bar
- 5 grape tomatoes, halved
- small handful of arugula (use any greens) covered with 3 pitted, chopped dates
- 6 cucumber slices (I sliced them thin on a handheld mandoline)
- 1 hard-boiled egg, cut in half and sprinkled with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons (small palmful) of microgreens (use any greens)
- 2 tablespoons of freshly made hummus
- 1/4 cup spiralized carrots (use a spiralizer at home or some grocery stores have them pre-spiralized. Or, substitute julienned or shredded carrots)
- 1 handful spring lettuce mix, chopped
- In the middle: 1/2 of a small avocado filled with 1 teaspoon each raw pumpkin and raw sunflower seeds
- Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of your favorite healthy salad dressing (suggestions below)
Instructions
- Arrange in a wide shallow bowl as listed above.
Notes
These are our favorite healthy salad dressings. All three are simple to make and delicious! They can be found on Elizabeth’s blog.
1. Healthy Homemade Honey Mustard
2. Healthy Homemade Vegan Ranch
3. The Perfect Balsamic Vinaigrette
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Well yes this looks like a wonderful healthy and tasty salad. I will certainly try it. But for me this is no cobb salad. I may slip in some home grilled free range chicken breast or some mackerel and am convinced it will still be healthy.