Low FODMAP Cobb Salad

If you’re looking for a filling salad that’s also FODMAP-friendly, this cobb salad is for you! It’s filled with classic cobb ingredients like chicken, bacon, hard-boiled eggs, diced tomato, and a red wine vinaigrette. 

This low FODMAP salad uses olives (one of my favorite foods) in place of traditionally-used, but higher FODMAP avocado. Feel free to substitute your favorite low FODMAP ingredients to make this salad your very own. 

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• 💭 Tips and substitutions
• Instructions
• 📖 Variations
• Low FODMAP Cobb Salad

Ingredients

This recipe calls for a few more ingredients than my usual ten or less goal because I didn’t want to sacrifice on all of the yummy, classic cobb flavors.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make the seasoned chicken, the salad, and the red wine vinaigrette:

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Vegetable oil (I used avocado oil)
• Low FODMAP All-Purpose Seasoning 
• Romaine or other low FODMAP lettuce
• Cherry tomatoes
• Cooked bacon
• Hard-boiled eggs
• Kalamata olives
• Green onion tops (green parts only)
• Red wine vinegar
• Dijon mustard
• Sugar
• Extra virgin olive oil

💭 Tips and substitutions

Chicken: Instead of making the seasoned chicken in this recipe, you could use leftover cooked chicken. Or, depending on where you live, you may be able to find a rotisserie chicken made with low FODMAP ingredients at your local grocery store. 

Cooked Bacon: For a less-mess option, I like to use this baked bacon method. Or, when I’m in a hurry, I will microwave bacon slices in between a couple of paper towels on a plate. The bacon usually takes 3-4 minutes in my microwave to get crispy and cooked. However, I recommend checking every minute or so to prevent over-cooking. 

Hard-Boiled Eggs: Most weeks I make Instant Pot Hard-Boiled Eggs to keep on hand for quick snacks or recipes like this. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, Delicious Meets Healthy has an excellent tutorial for hard-boiling eggs. Or, consider buying ready-to-eat hard-boiled eggs from your grocery store to save even more time.

Low FODMAP Dressing: Although the red wine vinaigrette is easy to make, you could use a ready-made low FODMAP salad dressing to save even more time. There are a few companies that offer certified low FODMAP salad dressings in the US, including:

• Fody Foods (certified by Monash University)
• Live Free Foods (certified by the FODMAP Friendly Food Program)
• Casa de Sante (certified by the FODMAP Friendly Food Program)

A few of my favorites are:

• Fody Foods French Dressing
• Fody Foods Maple Dijon Dressing
• Live Free Foods Ranch Dressing

Instructions

Mise en Place. I find that gathering and prepping all of my ingredients before I start making a recipe leads to a more enjoyable cooking experience, especially for recipes with more components like this one. 

Cook the chicken (if needed). Preheat broiler on high. Coat a broiler pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together avocado oil and low FODMAP steak seasoning. Add chicken and stir until the chicken is evenly coated with the seasoning mixture. Transfer the chicken to the prepared broiler pan.

Broil the chicken for 8 minutes, flip, and broil another 6-8 minutes or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Chicken is done when a food thermometer inserted into the thickest part reaches 165°F.

Allow the chicken to cool for about 5 minutes before dicing.

Make the dressing (if needed). In a small bowl, whisk together red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, and sugar. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until emulsified. Season the dressing with salt and pepper. 

Assemble the salad. Arrange lettuce, tomatoes, bacon, chicken, eggs, olives, and green onion tops onto four plates. 

Serve each salad with about 2 tablespoons of red wine vinaigrette or other prepared low FODMAP dressing.

Storage: Refrigerate salad ingredients and prepared vinaigrette in separate sealed containers for up to 3-4 days. If I’m meal prepping this salad, I like to keep the hard-boiled eggs and tomatoes whole until I’m ready to eat the salad. Doing this helps to minimize the sulfur smell of the hard-boiled eggs and reduce liquid from the tomatoes.

📖 Variations

Salads are perfect for personalization. Here are a couple of ideas to make this salad your very own:

Add low FODMAP cheese

Many types of cheeses, especially aged cheeses, are low in lactose and can be included in the low FODMAP diet.

Blue cheese is a common cobb salad ingredient. Although blue cheese hasn’t been tested, it is generally considered to be low FODMAP, because of its low lactose content (<1 gram of sugar per serving).

If you’re not a fan of blue cheese, some other examples of low FODMAP options include Cheddar, Swiss, and Havarti. These types of cheeses are low FODMAP in servings of up to 40 grams. You can find a more complete list of tested low FODMAP cheeses on the Monash FODMAP app. 

Substitute or omit the olives

As an olive lover, it’s hard for me to write that, but I understand not everyone shares my olive-loving sentiment. If you’re not a fan, you can certainly omit the olives, or try substituting in a little avocado. A low FODMAP serving for avocado is a ⅛ of a fruit (or 30 grams) per Monash University.

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