The reason I love writing these columns is the range of recipes that interest you and which are shared between us.  

Take last week’s column, for example. It was all about fettuccine Alfredo, the pasta with a silky cheese sauce made of cream, butter and Parmesan cheese. High fat? Yes. Delish? No question.

Well, this week we’re on the opposite side of the park, so to speak. A reader had a couple of questions about Cobb salad, including the appropriate fixins’ for it and how to make it healthy. 

OK so let’s start with the name: Cobb salad. What we know for sure is its origin: The Brown Derby Restaurant, Hollywood, California, probably in the 1930’s. Either the owner, Robert Cobb, or his chef got hunger pangs late one night and took a bunch of leftovers from salad making, including bacon and the restaurant’s signature French dressing and turned it into a feast.

The one “given” for the salad is a base of chopped salad greens, usually Romaine or iceberg lettuce, but really, the choice is yours. The reader wanted to use gourmet baby lettuces. Fine with me.

The toppings and dressing determine the healthiness (and tastiness) of the salad.

Laid in neat rows or small piles, the add-ons can include whatever suits your fancy. Popular ones are hard boiled or somewhat jammy eggs, cheese, tomato, bell peppers, avocado, bacon, chicken, skirt or flank steak, salmon, cucumbers, chives or sliced sweet onion. 

You can also sub in crispy, spiced baked tofu and use vegan “bacon” for the main proteins if you want. 

The Cobb salad I made yesterday included leftover pan roasted salmon. Mixed olives subbed in for avocado. 

As far as the dressing goes, a red, white wine or balsamic vinaigrette lends a healthy touch. 

What I also like about Cobb salad is how leftovers morph into an eye-appealing, quick to assemble, and really tummy satisfying meal.

Cobb salad

Ingredients and instructions for base

An inch or so of chopped salad greens on a plate or platter.

Rows or little piles of your favorite toppings. I used:

Thinly sliced red onions

Mixed olives

Hard boiled eggs

Sliced grape tomatoes

Feta and Gorgonzola cheeses

Pan roasted salmon 

Crumbled bacon

Ingredients and instructions for dressings

Simple French

Whisk together or shake in jar a real small clove garlic, minced, 1 teaspoon Dijon, 2-3 tablespoons red wine or white wine vinegar and a generous 1/3 cup olive oil. Taste and add salt and pepper.

Simple Balsamic

Whisk together or shake in jar one large clove garlic, minced, 2 tablespoons honey, 2-3 teaspoons Dijon, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar and about 3/4 cup olive oil. Taste and add salt and pepper.

Don’t pitch that Romaine bottom!

Place in shallow bowl and pour water around bottom. Place on counter or shady place outside. Change water each day. After a few days, you’ll see growth sprouting out of the center and roots forming on the bottom. 

Cut and come again! Ditto with other lettuces with a core, and green onions.