Fall Cobb Salad & Skillet Cornbread
I’ve finally embraced fall! Last weekend we took a short trip north to the Port Angeles area to visit my father-in-law and then took the ferry into Seattle. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the leaves along the way. Somehow surprising to me, we don’t really get much fall foliage at the beach. We drove east of the city and stopped at Snoqualmie Falls, which never ever disappoints, and on to Fall City Farms, a place close to my heart because working at the farm was my son’s first job. The rainy, damp weather made it extra chilly, and I came home ready to wear all the sweaters and cozy socks. In the spirit of the season, last night I made my list of fall-bakes-to-make and made a colorful Fall Cobb Salad with Maple Vinaigrette and Ruth Reichl’s Skillet Cornbread for dinner.
Technically, a Cobb salad is made with chopped romaine lettuce, tomato, bacon, chicken, eggs, avocado and blue cheese dressed with a vinaigrette. But no matter the riff on ingredients, they should always be laid out on a plate in neat rows.
Fall Cobb Salad with Maple Vinaigrette
This is the recipe I started with, but I made a few changes as reflected below. Mainly adding chicken and subbing goat cheese for blue cheese.
Ingredients
1 head romaine, torn into bite-size pieces – I like chopping mine with a knife
2 ounces (or more!) crumbled goat, feta or blue cheese
3 tablespoons dried cranberries
4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and quartered
6 ounces bacon, cooked & chopped
1 medium sweet potato
1 pound Brussels sprouts
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Pepitas (optional)
Maple Vinaigrette (makes way more than you need)
⅓ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon minced shallot (from about ½ small shallot)
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
Boil your eggs. Set aside to cool.
Cook bacon and chicken:
I added chicken breast that I cooked in 1 cup of apple cider (from the farm) in the instant pot. (5 minutes, natural release)
You can certainly fry bacon, but I typically cook my bacon in the oven at 400 degrees. I like it really crispy, which usually takes about 20 minutes. Drain and chop into bite-sized chunks.
Roast the veggies:
Wash and trim Brussels sprouts. Cut in half, dry and then toss with olive oil and salt in medium bowl. Dump onto one half of a parchment-lined baking sheet. Arrange cut side down.
Peel and slice the sweet potato in ¼ inch circles or half circles. Drizzle with olive oil and season with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Toss to coat (in same bowl used for Brussels sprouts) and then dump on to the other half of the baking sheet. I almost always line my baking sheets with parchment for easy clean up, but the veggies will get crispier on an unlined sheet. You can stir, flip veggies over halfway through if desired but I never do! Cook on 400 degrees for 16-18 minutes until they get some color and start to caramelize. Set aside to cool.
Tip: I would have taken out the potatoes and left the Brussels sprouts in the oven to cook a few minutes more.
Make the Vinaigrette:
While veggies are in the oven, make the dressing. In a small jar, combine the vinegar, maple syrup, shallot, salt, olive oil and a few cracks of black pepper. Seal tightly, then shake to combine.
Tip: While I liked the maple vinaigrette, next time I’m going with a creamy dressing such as this goat cheese dressing. You could also try a Ranch, blue cheese or feta-based dressing.
Assemble the Salad:
When ready to eat, arrange the lettuce on a large platter. Arrange each ingredient into a row, paying attention to colors for best artistic value.
When serving, use two serving utensils and scoop from either end across the ingredients so you get a bit of everything. It’s totally fine to go back and grab stray ingredients to even it out! Drizzle with the dressing or serve it on the side.
Additional tips:
It’s somewhat labor intensive, but you can cook the bacon, chicken and eggs in advance, as well as make the dressing ahead of time. I like the veggies room temperature, so I’d roast those just before serving, allowing 15 minutes to cool.
This salad is best eaten right when you make it. The next day it was too cold for my liking when eaten straight from the fridge!
Here she is in a serving bowl. Can you see the maple vinaigrette glistening on the sweet potatoes?
Ruth Reichl’s Skillet Cornbread
Then I thought, carbs are always good and so I made corn bread. I love making cornbread in a cast iron skillet and using Ruth Reichl’s recipe is my favorite because that’s the recipe my sister used. I’m here to tell you that the Trader Joe’s cornbread mix is also pretty dang good – but make it in a cast iron skillet. Really, the secret to any cornbread is butter and honey. Am I right?
The recipe I used is from The Gourmet Cookbook.
See link for full instructions.
Confession. I was in a hurry and tried to take my bread out of the skillet too early and yes, it stuck in the middle. I’ll go back to my usual method of simply serving it warm right out of the skillet.
Skillet Cornbread Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal ( I used Bob’s Red Mill stone-ground, medium-grind) which gives the bread a little crunch
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
I found this version of the recipe on Reichl’s Substack – updated and baked in a 6” skillet which is perfect for two. Plus I love how she just tells you how to simply make it without a long list of directions. It’s really that easy. Says you’ll have enough for 3 extra muffins or maybe make mini muffins.
I baked it in a 10” cast iron skillet at 425 degrees for 20 minutes and it got a little brown on top. The half recipe says to bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. In any case, keep an eye on it.
Before you cut into it, give it a minute or two to cool slightly, then brush with butter and drizzle honey and flaky sea salt on top. (I just take a stick of butter and rub it across the top because more butter is always a good idea.) Even the next morning, this cornbread is delicious warmed up in microwave with eggs and a little salsa for breakfast.
Happy Fall y’all! Now onto my baking list. So may fall bakes to make!
I wanted ALL the pumpkins and gourds on display at the farm, but alas, I only brought one pinkish-peachy-blue one home. The knobby bumpy yellow ones are pretty cool though!
P.S. Fun factoids: Brussels and Cobb are always capitalized. Brussels sprouts are named after the capital city of Belgium — they were cultivated in the country in the 16th century. And even one sprout is a “Brussels” plural sprout. As far as the Cobb Salad, stories vary but the most popular is that in 1937, the salad was named after Robert Howard Cobb, the owner of the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant in LA.