This Ham & Asparagus Cobb Salad is a stunning, colorful dinner and a total treat for the tastebuds! Think smoky ham and crisp tender roasted asparagus along with roasted sweet peppers & red onions, juicy fresh tomatoes and salty feta cheese on a bed of greens with avocado and a dreamy, creamy tarragon mustard dressing. The combination of tastes, textures and colors just dances on the plate.
With minimal cooking, it’s the perfect dinner on a summer night when you want something cool and easy that tastes fabulous. Or an amazing quick lunch option. You can even roast the veggies ahead of time and just throw it all together when you’re ready to eat. Plus you can totally make the dressing ahead of time too!
For an extra boost of protein, add in a chopped hard boiled egg. Funny story: I actually had an egg all cooked and ready in the fridge, then totally forgot about it when I started putting together my lovely salad. My brain had been obsessing on making this salad for at least a week before I finally made it. So I’d been thinking ahead to the various ingredients I wanted to use and getting ready.
I was in taste bud heaven when I finally got to TASTE the lovely salad I’d been dreaming of! Every bite was sheer bliss. It was even better than my dreams. And yes, I do seriously dream about salads I want to make. My brain starts looking at ingredients and putting them together and once it seizes on an idea for a dish, it won’t let go of it. Sometimes I carry around that idea in my head for weeks, months or even years before it happens. Thankfully, this idea didn’t take THAT long to come to fruition. Because I’m really excited to share it with you, my foodie friends.
Don’t let the list of ingredients scare you here. I included the recipe for roasting the asparagus, onions and peppers and the dressing. But both of those can be made ahead of time, in a larger batch, so you can cook once, eat many times.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Looking at it now, I want to go make it again!
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Ham & Asparagus Cobb Salad
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Total Time: 35 min
- Yield: About 2 servings 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: Roasted
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Easy to put together with make-ahead options, this Ham & Asparagus Cobb salad is a total treat for the eyes AND the taste buds! The dreamy, creamy tarragon mustard dressing is the awesome sauce that ties it all together.
Ingredients
For the roasted asparagus, peppers & onion:
- 1 bunch of asparagus
- 1 bell pepper, seeded and sliced into strips (preferably red, yellow or orange)
- 1/2 of a red onion, peeled and sliced thin
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- Bacon salt (or regular salt) and Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute (or your favorite no-salt seasoning)
For the creamy tarragon mustard dressing:
- 1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt or cottage cheese
- 1/3 cup mayo
- 2 – 4 cloves garlic, peeled – or 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon EACH: salt and sugar
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons – 2 Tablespoons good quality mustard (more or less to taste)
- Several sprigs of fresh tarragon (6 – 8 sprigs about 6 inches long)
- A small sprig of fresh dill or fennel
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Milk, as needed to thin
For the salad:
- Greens of choice
- Ham, chopped
- Avocado, cut into slices or chunks
- Feta cheese, crumbled (best marinated! – recipe here)
- Chopped sweet tomatoes
- Optional: chopped hard boiled egg
Instructions
- Toss the asparagus, bell pepper strips, and onion slices in olive oil. Sprinkle with seasonings and either put in the air fryer at 370 for 5 – 10 minutes or set on an oiled pan and roast in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes.
- While the veggies are roasting, blend together the dressing ingredients in a mini food processor or handi chopper, adding milk as needed to thin.
- Assemble the salad! Start with a bed of greens, then make stripes with the tomatoes, ham, asparagus, roasted peppers and onions and the rest of the salad ingredients. Let the long asparagus spears be the centerpiece.
- Serve with the dressing to drizzle as you like and enjoy. Save leftover dressing for other salads or use it as a dip.
Notes
RECIPE SOURCE: Sumptuous Spoonfuls – https://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/ … © Copyright 2023, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.
