This Fall Harvest Cobb Salad with Cheddar Cheese, Apples and Bacon is a flavorful seasonal salad with spiced nuts and nourishing and hearty toppings. It is easy enough to make for lunch or a weeknight dinner and special enough to serve to house guests or company.

salads on a white table with apple slices, a jar of dressing and fall leaves

I originally shared this salad recipe on October 28th, 2014. I have updated the recipe, images and text to bring it to you again today.

Table of contents

Why We Love This Recipe For Fall Harvest Cobb Salad

The time has come when I begin making the switch from summer tomato or cucumber salads to cold weather salads.

And by that, I mean salads that are loaded with fall flavors like nuts, apples, vegetables and more. My Thanksgiving Salad with Roasted Squash and Cranberries comes to mind (Promise me you’ll try that one next!) Rather than being super light like my summer salads, my fall and winter salads are big, bold and packed full of nourishing seasonal toppings–like this fall harvest Cobb salad!

This delicious and hearty salad is topped with chunks of cheddar cheese, crumbled bacon, spiced nuts and chunks of honey crisp apples from a recent apple picking trip.

I have made this with my homemade cranberry vinaigrette and this Apple Cider Vinaigrette too. Both are wonderful!

There are all sorts of flavors and textures layered together which makes it a really interesting and crave-worthy salad.

This harvest cobb can be divided into meal prep containers for lunches to go, or you can make it ahead for a entree salad for a weeknight dinner. Break off a piece of Fall Chocolate Bark for dessert and you have the perfect autumn meal!

More Healthy Seasonal Cobb Salad Recipes

In case you’re new here, you may not know that I have a whole Cobb Salad series. Other recipes that are included are:

  • Our summer fresh Grilled Corn and Peach Cobb Salad features fresh grilled stone fruit and corn on the cobb with pecans, bleu cheese and hard boiled eggs.
  • Our classic Healthy Cobb Salad is perfect for any season, and is lighter and lower in calories than most traditional cobb salads.
  • This wintery Southwest Cobb Kale Salad is made with a base of kale greens and is topped with Southwest-inspired toppings for another twist on Cobb salads.

Key Ingredients For This Recipe

the ingredients spread out on a white surface with text overlay

Salad greens

My favorite salad greens for this recipe are mixed baby greens because they are a little peppery and go well with the bold flavors of this salad. I also like these toppings on a bed of baby spinach. You can also do a combination of both, or honestly use whichever salad green you prefer or have on hand.

Eggs

No Cobb salad would be complete without hard-boiled eggs. To make them easier to peel, it is best to hard boil eggs that are not super fresh.

Bacon

Try to look for uncured, smoked bacon without added sodium nitrates in it. You could also use turkey bacon if that’s what you prefer. Cook and crumble it into pieces.

Apple

I prefer to use crisp sweet apples such as Honeycrisp, pink lady, Mutsu, Piñata or Ambrosia in salads. It adds such nice freshness. You’ll need to dice it, but no need to peel. Read more about which are good to use in my guide to apples.

Cheddar Cheese

Typically a Cobb salad has blue cheese, but in this harvest version, we decided to use cheddar cheese. The flavors of the apples, bacon and cheddar are amazing together! Extra sharp cheddar cheese is my favorite because it is quite strong, so a little goes a long way. It’s so creamy, tangy and a little nutty.

Spiced nuts

You can either make your own homemade spiced nuts or purchase them at the store.

Vinaigrette

Last but not least you’ll need a tasty vinaigrette to finish off this salad. I have tons of salad dressing recipes here on my site, but if you need some guidance, my Maple Tahini Dressing, Maple Sherry Vinaigrette or Apple Cider Vinaigrette are all excellent options. This Cranberry Vinaigrette or Lemon Vinaigrette Salad Dressing are other ideas to try. You can’t really go wrong!

Instructions to Make This Fall Harvest Cobb Salad

peel the eggs and lay bacon on a plate to microwave it

Step 1: Hard Boil Eggs

Cover eggs with cold water in a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil over high heat. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle boil and cook for 10 minutes. Drain away the boiling water and run cold tap water into the saucepan for a minute to cool the eggs. Peel and chop.

Step 2: Cook Bacon

Lay the bacon on a paper-towel lined plate. Place a layer of paper towels over them and cook in the microwave until crisp, 3 to 6 minutes. Cool and crumble or chop.

Alternatively, you can bake it or cook it in a skillet. Let it cool, then crumble or chop.

assembling the salads and pouring on the dressing

Step 3: Compose the Harvest Cobb Salad

Once all the salad components are prepped, arrange the salad greens, bacon, apple, cheddar and nuts on six plates.

Step 4: To Serve

Drizzle the dressing over the salads and serve.

the composed harvest salad with a fork on a white plate on a white table with fall leaves

FAQs and Expert Tips

How to make this harvest salad vegetarian:

Just because you don’t eat meat doesn’t mean you should have to miss out on this awesome salad! You can either just omit the bacon completely, OR you can make my Vegan Shiitake Mushroom Bacon.

Can this be made ahead?

This is a great meal prep salad. Divide the servings into four meal prep containers and keep refrigerated up to 3 days. The only things I would keep in mind are that the spiced nuts should be kept separately so they do not become tacky. Additionally, to keep the apples from turning brown, toss the cubes in a little lemon water.

How to make the spiced nuts from scratch

To keep it easy, feel free to use purchased spiced nuts. But you can also make them yourself from scratch. To make them at home you can follow these instructions for crispy spiced nuts and these chocolate chili spiced nuts are good too!

Variations To Try

Additional Salad Recipes to Try

Thanks so much for reading! If you are new here, you may want to sign up for my email newsletter to get a free weekly menu plan and the latest recipes right to your inbox. If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought!

Happy Cooking! ~Katie

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composed salad with eggs, chunks of cheddar and apple with a fork on a white plate

Fall Harvest Cobb Salad

★★★★★

5 from 5 reviews
  • Author: Katie Webster
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x
Print Recipe

Description

This Fall Harvest Cobb Salad with Cheddar Cheese, Apples and Bacon is a flavorful seasonal salad with spiced nuts and nourishing and hearty toppings. It is easy enough to make for lunch and special enough for Thanksgiving.

Ingredients

Scale

4 large eggs

5 slices bacon

8 cups mixed baby greens, or baby spinach

1 large or 2 small crisp sweet apple, such as honey crisp, diced

4 ounces cubed sharp cheddar cheese, about 1 cup

½ cup spiced nuts, homemade or purchased

½ cup vinaigrette (such as apple cider vinaigrette)

Instructions

  1. Cover eggs with cold water in a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil over high heat. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle boil and cook for 10 minutes. Drain away the boiling water and run cold tap water into the saucepan for a minute to cool the eggs. Peel and chop.
  2. Lay the bacon on a paper-towel lined plate. Place a layer of paper towels over them and cook in the microwave until crisp, 3 to 6 minutes. Cool and crumble or chop.
  3. Arrange salad greens, the, eggs, the bacon, apple, cheddar and nuts on six plates or a serving platter.
  4. Drizzle with the dressing.

Notes

Make Ahead and Meal Prep Tips

This is a great meal prep salad. Divide the servings into four meal prep containers and keep them refrigerated up to 3 days. The spiced nuts should be kept separately so they do not become tacky. Additionally, to keep the apples from turning brown, toss the cubes in a little lemon water.

  • Prep Time: 30 minutes
  • Category: Salad
  • Method: No Cook
  • Cuisine: American

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1/6 recipe (abotu 2 cups)
  • Calories: 382
  • Sugar: 6 g
  • Fat: 32 g
  • Saturated Fat: 10 g
  • Carbohydrates: 10 g
  • Fiber: 2 g
  • Protein: 14 g

Keywords: harvest salad,fall cobb salad,harvest cobb salad,

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