Not sure what made me create this colorful, fiber-rich, salad but I love love, love, it, and think you will too! So yummy, I could eat it every week. It’s chock full of great, skinny, satisfying ingredients. It not only contains chopped romaine lettuce instead of iceberg and lean bacon, but it also has chopped bell peppers, black beans, fresh corn cut off the cob, and crunchy crushed reduced-fat tortilla chips. In addition, it’s tossed in a yummy reduced-fat cilantro dressing. Each very large main course salad has 283 calories, 8 grams fat and 9 grams of fiber!
Ingredients
- 12 strips uncured bacon, see shopping tips
- 8 cups romaine lettuce, chopped, see prep tips
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
- 1 cup fresh corn, cut off the cob (~2 small cobs) or 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
- 1 orange or yellow bell pepper, cleaned, cored and chopped
- 1 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup red onions, chopped fine
- 1 cup crushed reduced-fat tortilla chips (~18 chips), see shopping tips
- ½ cup Trader Joe’s Reduced-Fat Cilantro Salad Dressing, see shopping tips or make my recipe for Dreamy Skinny Cilantro Ranch Dressing
- 2 teaspoons honey
Instructions
- To cook the bacon-place on a microwave-safe plate two sheets of paper towels. Lay on top of paper towels 6 slices of bacon in a single layer. Lay another 2 sheets of paper towels on top of bacon. Cook in microwave until crisp (~ 4 to 5 minutes). Blot the cook pieces and set side. Repeat the steps with remaining 6 pieces, using more paper towels.
- In a large bowl add the chopped romaine, tomatoes, corn, peppers, beans, onions and tortilla chips. Crumble in cooked bacon.
- In a small bowl, mix together Trader Joe’s dressing and honey. If using my recipe for Dreamy Skinny Cilantro Ranch Dressing you don’t need to add the honey. Add dressing to salad and toss well. Add a little more dressing, if desired. Or, line each plate with lettuce. Divide and place all the ingredients in rows on top of lettuce, as shown in the photo. Serve with dressing on the side.
Notes
Makes 4 servings (about 4 cups each)
Shopping Tips
Happily, there are many brands of bacon, uncured without nitrates. I like Applegate Farms Natural Sunday Bacon. It’s low in fat and calories, uncured and contains no nitrites! Many supermarkets carry this brand. I bought it at Vons/Safeway and Whole Foods. Here’s the link to their website: http://www.applegate.com/products/natural-sunday-bacon Now Oscar Meyers makes an uncured, no nitrates bacon. You can find it at most supermarkets. Trader Joe’s Reduced-fat Cilantro Salad Dressing is a fresh dressing displayed in the refrigerated section, near the lettuces. It contains 45 calories and 3.5 grams of fat for 2 tablespoons. I’ve added a little honey to make this dressing really taste wonderful!
Prep Tips
Cobb salads are best made with chopped lettuce. If using pre-washed bags of romaine, still chop all the leaves fine. This is simple to do if you stack a bunch of lettuce together first, then chop all at once.
Serving Tips
This salad makes a delightful side salad too. It will serve 8 to 10 people.
WW Freestyle SmartPoints 4- Blue
WW SmartPoints 7-Green
WW POINTS PLUS 8
Shopping Tips
Happily, there are many brands of bacon, uncured without nitrates. I like Applegate Farms Natural Sunday Bacon. It’s low in fat and calories, uncured and contains no nitrites! Many supermarkets carry this brand. I bought it at Vons/Safeway and Whole Foods. Here’s the link to their website: http://www.applegate.com/products/natural-sunday-bacon Now Oscar Meyers makes an uncured, no nitrates bacon. You can find it at most supermarkets. Trader Joe’s Reduced-fat Cilantro Salad Dressing is a fresh dressing displayed in the refrigerated section, near the lettuces. It contains 45 calories and 3.5 grams of fat for 2 tablespoons. I’ve added a little honey to make this dressing really taste wonderful!
Prep Tips
Cobb salads are best made with chopped lettuce. If using pre-washed bags of romaine, still chop all the leaves fine. This is simple to do if you stack a bunch of lettuce together first, then chop all at once.
Serving Tips
This salad makes a delightful side salad too. It will serve 8 to 10 people.
WW Freestyle SmartPoints 4- Blue
WW SmartPoints 7-Green
WW POINTS PLUS 8
| SKINNY FACTS: for 1 serving (about 4 cups each) including dressing and tortilla chips 283 calories, 8g fat, 2g sat. fat, 10mg chol, 17g protein, 43g carbs, 9g fiber, 512mg sodium, 6g sugar |
| FACTS: for Freestyle SmartPoints 139 calories, 1g sat. fat, 4g sugar, 9g protein |
Skinny Facts
Serving: 4cupsCalories: 283kcalCarbohydrates: 43gProtein: 17gFat: 8gSaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 10mgSodium: 512mgFiber: 9gSugar: 6gBlue Smart Points: 4Green Smart Points: 7Plus Points: 8
I missed the note about this: 1 cup crushed reduced-fat tortilla chips (~18 chips), see shopping tips
thanks!
Oh good. Enjoy this fantastic salad, Deb!
My best,
Nancy