This spicy southwest salad was perfect for a healthy weeknight meal! Light and fresh was just what I needed.
You’ll need:
1/2 lb of unpeeled shrimp
2 ears of fresh corn
Baby greens
1 can of black beans
1/2 a small Red onion
1 small tomato
1 small avocado
Cotija cheese
1 teaspoon cracked red pepper
1 lime
For the Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette:
1 large jalapeño
1/2 a bushel of cilantro
1 lime
4 cloves of garlic
4 tablespoons of olive oil
Cumin
Salt
First, let’s peel the shrimp. Leave the tails on.
Nice peeled shrimp. Now into deveining and butterflying!
Take the knife and slice down the center line of the back of the shrimp.
Remove the vein… Aka icky brown mushy stuff. Rinse with water if necessary.
After removing the vein, slice a little farther into the shrimp along the same line as before. Do not slice all the way through.
If you flip it over, it will look like this. See, kind of looks butterfly-ish.
Butterflied shrimp!
Now for a simple marinade, olive oil, salt, pepper, lime and cracked red pepper.
Pour a tablespoon or so of olive oil over the shrimp. Then a little salt and some fresh pepper. Add about a teaspoon of red pepper. Squeeze the juice of 1 lime into the bowl.
Stir all of that together, completely coating the shrimp. Cover and place the in fridge. Let marinate for about an hour.
While the shrimp are marinating, get started on the other things. Rinse the black beans and let them dry out a little.
Slice the head off the tomato.
With a knife cut out the insides of the tomato.
Dice the red onion and tomato into equally sized pieces and set aside.
Now for the Vinaigrette… Cilantro, jalapeño and garlic.
Do a rough chop of all of these.
Place the roughly chopped jalapeño, garlic and cilantro into a blender. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil.
Add a few shakes of cumin.
Add the juice of 1 lime.
Blend until smooth! Put some in a jar and save for later if you want!
Now it’s time to head to the grill! Peel the corn and remove all the fibers. Go ahead and place the corn on the grill before the shrimp since they will take longer to cook.
The corn probably takes about 10 minutes on each side. The shrimp probably take about 5 minutes.
Those look pretty tasty!
Now, hold the corn stalk upright and slice the corn off.
Do that for both!
Now build the salad. In a large bowl, put the greens in and corn on top.
Then the black beans and the rest of the good stuff… Tomato, onion, sliced avocado and of course shrimp!
This is cotija cheese. You can find it in the Mexican cheese section.
Break off a piece of the cheese and crumble it over the salad.
Perfect meal! Top with the cilantro lime vinaigrette, toss and enjoy!
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