In the summertime, you just want to eat more fresh vegetables.

I love a good salad, but salads can get boring pretty quickly.

Incorporating some big flavours and lots of protein will make an average salad into a proper meal.

I love a good Cobb salad. Traditionally made with chicken, boiled egg, bacon, a few types of lettuce, blue cheese, tomatoes and avocado, it's filling and oh-so-satisfying for a late summer dinner.

Creaminess

Ireland isn't known for its avocados (shocker!), so I tend to replace them with a bit of red onion and egg salad instead of plain ol' boiled eggs. This provides the extra creaminess the avocado generally adds.

I have eaten Cobb salads with a light vinaigrette dressing (which, I believe, is most traditional) and I've had it with a creamy ranch-style dressing. I've also had it with no dressing at all.

I once worked in a restaurant where the 'Cobb' was a very loose term for the salad we served our guests.

Keeping it vegetarian, we used a deep-fried tofu tossed in tomato jam instead of bacon or chicken and used a locally-made gouda instead of blue cheese. It was a very popular menu item, believe it or not!

Great for the family

This salad is so great for the whole family because, if your kids are picky eaters, they can pick and choose the bits they want to eat. Instead of having it all on one platter, sometimes I keep the components completely separate and let the kids build their own salad.

Finally, I like to serve the chicken and bacon warm and the cheese and tomatoes at room temperature. When everything is at its optimal temperature, it blends with the crisp, fresh lettuce beautifully.

This is a salad for the ages!

Kind-of Cobb Salad

Cobb Salad

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 large head romaine lettuce, chopped, washed and dried

1 package streaky bacon, baked in the oven until crisp

4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts

4 Tbsp rapeseed oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Juice from 1/2 lemon

6 large eggs, hard boiled and roughly chopped

4 Tbsp Hellmanns mayonnaise

1 punnet cherry or grape tomatoes

200g Cashel Blue cheese, roughly crumbled

1 red onion, thinly sliced

Directions:

  • 1 Preheat your oven to 200°C. Roughly chop, wash and spin your romaine lettuce until it's dry and set aside.
  • 2 On a parchment-lined baking sheet, lay out the streaky bacon in a single layer. Take another baking sheet (optional) and lay it on top of the bacon so it bakes evenly and stays flat. Put the bacon into the preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until crispy.

  • 3 Prepare the chicken: slice each chicken breast in half so you have eight thin pieces. Season each piece with salt and pepper. Heat an oven-safe pan on medium-high and sear each piece on both sides in two or three batches. Use the 4Tbsp of rapeseed oil to fry the chicken.

  • 4 On the last batch of chicken, add the lemon juice and add in the other chicken pieces. Place the pan into the oven and cook through for 5-10 minutes.

  • 5 Prepare the egg salad: remove the shells from the hard boiled eggs and roughly chop. Add the chopped egg to a bowl and add the mayonnaise. Mix and season with salt and pepper to taste.

  • 6 Slice the red onion and slice the tomatoes in half.

  • 7 Assemble the salad: place the chopped romaine on a large platter and then, keeping each topping separate, add in the red onion in one column followed by the tomato.

  • 8 Add the egg mayonnaise and crumbled blue cheese. Roughly chop the bacon and slice the chicken; add both to the salad.

  • 9 Serve right away. It doesn't keep well, so if you want some for the next day, keep the components separate.