This Flaky Fish Is The Secret To An Upgraded Cobb Salad

The origin story of the Cobb salad is a fascinating one that involves Hollywood elite, a landmark restaurant, and a restaurateur in search of a snack. Named after its creator, the Cobb salad remains a popular and versatile way to not only put together an amazing meal, but to make slight adjustments to the recipe with whatever happens to be at hand. Feel like a Maine lobster Cobb salad? You can do that! A Southwest-style grilled chicken Cobb salad? That works, too. 

If you haven't yet reached for fish to add your own unique take on this classic, you're seriously missing out. Specifically, we're talking about salmon. Salmon isn't just delicious, but it's filled with all kinds of vital nutrients like selenium, niacin, phosphorus, and B vitamins. It's also linked to improving heart health as well as helping to manage blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and did we also mention that it's delicious? 

Salmon on Cobb salad works whether you make fresh Grilled Summer Salmon and add it to the salad warm, use cold leftovers from the fridge, or if you reach for a convenient can. Canned salmon is a great, affordable option for keeping a healthy protein on hand at all times. Adding canned salmon to Cobb salad is just one way to upgrade canned salmon into a nutritious meal you'll love.

The traditional ingredients for Cobb salad like hard-boiled eggs, bacon, avocado, and blue cheese all work great with salmon. Corn is sometimes found in Cobb salad recipes and also works wonderfully with rich, flaky salmon. Now, what about dressing? There's a simple trick to make salad dressing in a flash, which is to mix together ingredients in a ratio of three parts oil to one part vinegar (or acid like lemon juice). As to what other dressing ingredients will complement salmon, here is where we do have some suggestions.

Few things go better with salmon than lemon, so it makes sense that our first recommendation is a lemon dill dressing. For this dressing use that handy ratio for olive oil to lemon juice, then add a spoonful of Dijon, freshly chopped dill, and a dash of salt. If it needs sweetness to balance, reach for a bottle of honey. Speaking of vinaigrette, other citrus dressings — like a cilantro lime — are perfect for keeping the salad light and fresh, which might be exactly what you want on a warm summer evening. If you're feeling like something creamy, use up the rest of your avocado in a Green Goddess Dressing Recipe to complement the other flavors with a punch of citrus and umami notes from the anchovy. It's so good, you might find yourself planning on making extra salmon just for a Cobb salad the next day.