Crispy, savory mushroom bacon brings our fresh and crunchy vegan cobb salad to another level. With fresh corn, juicy tomatoes, creamy avocado and a tangy homemade vegan ranch, this cobb salad is an ideal plant-based lunch.
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🥗 Why We Love This Recipe
- 100% vegan: Traditional cobb salads will have bacon, chicken, and eggs. This salad makes use of mushroom bacon, chickpeas and homemade vegan ranch to provide similar flavors that are totally vegan.
- Tons of texture: Crunchy vegan bacon, pops of corn kernels, and the crispness of lettuce provide a ton of contrasting textures that keep every bite interesting.
- Super summery: Corn, avocado, and refreshing ranch bring the best season of the year (yeah, we said it) straight to your plate.
🥘 Ingredients
Here are the key ingredients you'll need to make this vegan cobb salad:
📋 Ingredient Notes
- Mushroom bacon: We believe this is what makes this salad special, but if you're in a time crunch, you can likely find vegan bacon at the supermarket and cook that up instead.
- Homemade ranch: Our homemade ranch is totally vegan. If that's not an issue for you, or you don't have time, feel free to use the dressing of your choice.
- Corn: Fresh is best, and we wouldn't recommend using the canned stuff here. You can try grilling the corn for some extra flavor. (Frozen corn works, too, if it's not in season.)
- Use a high heat oil for the mushrooms: This will prevent smoking when the mushrooms are cooked. We'd recommend avocado oil (refined), almond oil, corn oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, sesame oil or sunflower oil, all of which have smoke points above 400 degrees F.
- Chickpeas: you can also use white beans. Chickpeas are a great way to add plant-based protein to this vegan cobb salad and make it a bit more filling.
🔪 Step-by-step Instructions
Mushroom Bacon:
(1) Briefly wash 16 oz. of mushrooms to remove dirt and chop off and discard stems. Pat dry with paper towels and slice into ¼ inch thick pieces. Place in a large bowl that has extra room for tossing.
(2) In a smaller bowl, whisk together the 3 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce, 2 tablespoon oil, ½ tablespoon liquid smoke, ½ tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 2 teaspoon coconut sugar, ¾ teaspoon paprika, ½ teaspoon onion powder, and ½ teaspoon black pepper.
Pour the mixture over the mushrooms and use your hands to gently toss the mushrooms to coat with the marinade. Let mushrooms marinate for 40-45 minutes, tossing 3-4 times with your hands or a large spoon.
(3) Preheat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Using a slotted spoon, add your sliced mushrooms to the pan and cook down for 5-6 minutes. Don't throw out the marinade! Then turn the heat up to medium high and cook, stirring frequently for another 5-6 minutes.
(4) Continue to add the marinade that's left in the bowl until all of the liquid is completely absorbed. The mushrooms should be browned by the time all of the liquid is used up.
(5) You can enjoy the mushrooms as they are, but at this point they're still not super crispy like real bacon. If you want them to be crispier, add oil to a deep pot over medium heat, enough to cover the bottom to a height of 1.5-2 inches. You'll know the oil is ready when you add a few drops of water to the oil and it sizzles.
(6) Once the oil is hot enough, add the mushrooms in 2-3 batches to the pot. Stir well when you add them so they don't stick together. Let them cook for 3 minutes, stirring once while cooking.
Remove with a slotted spoon and lay on a few layers of paper towels on a cutting board. Pat dry to remove excess oil. The mushrooms will crisp up a bit more as they sit. You can also lay them on a drying rack to help facilitate this until you are ready to use them.
Vegan Ranch Dressing:
(1) Place all ingredients into a large mixing bowl and whisk together. That's it!
Cobb Salad:
(1) Wash and pat 1 head of romaine dry. Slice or tear into bite-sized pieces.
(2) Cook 2 ears of corn corn by boiling for about 3 minutes. Let cool and slice kernels from cob.
(3) Prep the rest of the salad ingredients: chop 1 cup of cherry tomatoes into halves, slice up 1 avocado, and drain and briefly rinse off the contents of 1 15 oz. can of chickpeas.
(4) Combine romaine, corn, cherry tomatoes, avocado, chickpeas and mushroom bacon. Toss to combine, and then dress with ranch.
💭 Expert Tips and FAQs
- Mushroom bacon tips: we tried this recipe SO many different ways. We found the only way to get them crispy and retain flavor (without burning) is to first pan fry with the marinade to add flavor, then quickly deep fry to make them crispy. It's a bit time consuming, but so worth it! They're meaty, smoky, salty and perfectly crispy.
- Make this recipe quicker: If you're in a rush, you can stick to the base of our Cobb salad and replace the mushroom bacon and homemade dressing with store-bought products.
- Customize for the family: If you have family members who aren't vegan, then feel free to make regular bacon and add to their salads. Chicken and eggs are also typical Cobb salad additions for non-vegans. Croutons would also be a good idea.
- Keep an eye on the mushroom bacon: It can burn quite quickly, so be sure to keep an eye on the heat, and turn down if necessary and stir frequently.
🍽 Related Recipes
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Print📖 Recipe
Cobb Salad with Mushroom Bacon
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: Serves 6
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Crispy, savory mushroom bacon brings this fresh vegan cobb salad to another level. No need to sacrifice the crunch and saltiness of bacon in your vegan cobb!
Ingredients
For the mushroom bacon:
- 16 oz mushrooms, stems removed and sliced into ¼ inch thick pieces
- 3 tbsp low sodium Tamari or soy sauce
- 2 tbsp high heat oil
- ½ tbsp liquid smoke
- ½ tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp coconut sugar
- ¾ tsp paprika
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp black pepper
- Canola oil to cover a deep pot 1-2 inches
For the Cobb salad:
- 1 head romaine lettuce
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2 ears corn (about 1 cup cooked)
- 1 avocado
- 1 15oz can chickpeas
- Optional: vegan feta
For the vegan ranch dressing:
- 1 cup plain cashew (or other non-dairy) yogurt
- 3 tbsp almond milk
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp pepper
- 2 tbsp fresh chives
- 1 ½ tbsp fresh parsley
- 1 tbsp fresh dill
Instructions
To make the mushroom bacon:
- Briefly wash 16 oz. of mushrooms to remove dirt and chop off and discard stems. Pat dry with paper towels and slice into ¼ inch thick pieces. Place in a large bowl.
- In a smaller bowl, whisk together the 3 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce, 2 tablespoon oil, ½ tablespoon liquid smoke, ½ tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 2 teaspoon coconut sugar, ¾ teaspoon paprika, ½ teaspoon onion powder, and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Pour the mixture over the mushrooms and use your hands to gently toss the mushrooms to coat with the marinade. Let mushrooms marinate for 40-45 minutes, tossing 3-4 times with your hands or a large spoon.
- Preheat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Using a slotted spoon, add your sliced mushrooms to the pan and cook down for 5-6 minutes. Don't throw out the marinade! Then turn the heat up to medium high and cook, stirring frequently for another 5-6 minutes. Continue to add the marinade that's left in the bowl until all of the liquid is completely absorbed. The mushrooms should be browned by the time all of the liquid is used up.
- You can enjoy the mushrooms as they are, or if you would like for them to be a little crispier, add oil to a deep pot over medium heat, enough to cover the bottom to a height of 1.5-2 inches. You'll know the oil is ready when you add a few drops of water to the oil and it sizzles.
- Once the oil is hot enough, add the mushrooms in 2-3 batches to the pot. Stir well when you add them so they don't stick together. Let them cook for 3 minutes, stirring once while cooking. Remove with a slotted spoon and lay on a few layers of paper towels on a cutting board. Pat dry to remove excess oil. The mushrooms will crisp up a bit more as they sit. You can also lay them on a drying rack to help facilitate this until you are ready to use them.
To make the vegan ranch dressing:
- Place all ingredients into a large mixing bowl and whisk together. That's it!
To make the Cobb salad:
- Wash and pat 1 head of romaine dry. Slice or tear into bite-sized pieces.
- Cook 2 ears of corn corn by boiling for about 3 minutes. Let cool and slice kernels from cob.
- Prep the rest of the salad ingredients: chop 1 cup of cherry tomatoes into halves, slice up 1 avocado, and drain and briefly rinse off the contents of 1 15 oz. can of chickpeas.
- Combine romaine, corn, cherry tomatoes, avocado, chickpeas and mushroom bacon. Toss to combine, and then dress with ranch.
Notes
Opt for a high heat oil when cooking your mushroom bacon. Peanut and canola are two oils that are easily found that have high smoke points.
Keep an eye on the mushroom bacon as it can burn easily.
Only toss with ranch when you're ready to eat, as the salad can get soggy the longer it sits.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Marinade Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Salads
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Bowl
- Calories: 476
- Sugar: 10.5 g
- Sodium: 915.4 mg
- Fat: 31.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 38.5 g
- Fiber: 10.3 g
- Protein: 14.9 g
Keywords: vegan cobb salad
Ramona
Looks amazing, can't wait to make!
Lexi
Thank you, Ramona! Hope you give it a try!