Southern Cobb Salad with Homemade Ranch

I am back with another salad.  In the Summer all I want to eat is salads.  All day everyday.

This salad is all you need for a meal.  Creamy avocado, fresh crisp corn, tangy blue cheese, salty bacon and a homemade dressing to top things off.  Little confession I usually never buy store bought dressing, except for the odd occasion. I find homemade dressings taste so much better but they do take time.  If you don't want to make your own Ranch dressing- use the Hidden Valley powder packet and mix it up, it is second best to homemade.  This homemade dressing was full of flavor from all the fresh herbs and really good but next time I may make a few tweaks to it. Matt and I thought it needed a little something like maybe some fresh lemon juice added to it.   I added  pickled okra because I love pickled okra.  I could seriously eat a whole jar of okra.   I also boiled some extra eggs and made deviled eggs to go on the side.  Matt got into the eggs before I could even get a picture of them. But the deviled eggs and pickled okra give this Cobb a Southern twist.  This salad is perfect for a Summer dinner!

Enjoy.

|| S O U T H E R N  C O B B   S A L A D  +  H O M E M A D E   R A N C H ||

- 1 head Romaine Lettuce shredded

- 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes halved

- 3 ears corn with corn sliced off ( I baked the corn unwrapped at 350 about 15 mins first)

- 3-4 green onions sliced

- 1 avocado diced

- 2 hard boiled eggs diced

- 6-8 pieces of bacon cooked and crumbled

- 1 cup blue cheese crumbled

- Rotisserie Chicken diced

- pickled okra 

- Deviled eggs on the side

R AN C H  D R E S S I N G 

via Foodie with the Family

1¼ cups cultured buttermilk
1 cup sour cream
¾ cup mayonnaise
⅓ cup, packed, finely chopped dill
¼ cup finely chopped parsley (flat-leaf or curly)
¼ cup finely chopped chives or green parts only of scallions
¾ teaspoon finely chopped fresh oregano
1 large clove garlic, peeled and finely minced or pressed (or ½ teaspoon granulated garlic)
1 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
freshly ground black pepper to taste

 

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until well mixed.  You can also stir by hand as well to mix.

For the salad, I like to place everything on a big platter divided.  That way everyone can serve their own salads and put what they want on it.  This would be stellar with grilled chicken but I was lazy and used a Rotisserie chicken.  Would also be great with grilled corn.  You actually don't even have to cook the corn but I usually bake it in the oven 10-15 just to slightly cook it.  Mix all together and drizzle with the ranch!