Quinoa Shrimp Salad
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I felt that I was due for a healthy recipe on here. This is a fresh, nutritious, and most importantly, delicious quinoa salad. When I'm trying to eat healthy, it's important to me that it actually tastes good. Life is too short to eat food that you don't enjoy. My sister actually loved this so much that I made it two days in a row : ) What's great about this salad is that it's even good the next day straight out of the fridge. So if you have any leftover, it'll make a nice lunch.
While the quinoa is cooking, prepare the shrimp. The bags of frozen raw shrimp are perfect for salads because they're peeled and deveined. All you have to do is saute in olive oil for a few minutes with some seasoning and they're good to go.
Cut the corn off the cob, dice the onions and tomatoes, and chop the cilantro.
Add a generous amount of cilantro to both the corn and the tomatoes/onions.
Whisk together ingredients for the dressing and set aside.
To serve, you can either plate the quinoa with each of the mix-ins and shrimp on top neatly (pictured below), or you can toss everything together in a large bowl with the dressing. This is completely up to you and which presentation you prefer. Happy clean eating!
Ingredients Serves 3-4
for quinoa:
2 cups quinoa
4 cups chicken broth
for shrimp:
1 bag frozen raw shrimp
Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning (this is one of my favorite seasonings and is great on everything, but if you don't have it you can use Kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper)
olive oil for frying
juice from 1/2 lime
for veggie mix-ins:
2 cobs of sweet white corn (I use raw corn in this recipe because it's my preference, but feel free to use thawed frozen corn or even canned corn will work)
1/2 red onion
1 large tomato or 3 Campari tomatoes
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
juice of 1/2 lime
juice of 1/2 lemon
for dressing:
juice of 1 lime
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
- Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan over med-high heat. Add 2 cups of quinoa and let toast for 2 minutes, until you smell the nutty aroma.
- Add 4 cups of chicken broth and let it come to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and let cook until all the liquid has evaporated (about 15-18 min).
- While you wait for the quinoa to cook, prepare the shrimp. From frozen, empty the shrimp into a colander. Run under cold water for a couple minutes until the shrimp has softened. Shake the colander to get rid of any excess water.
- Heat a skillet over medium heat with about 1 tbsp of olive oil. Carefully add the thawed shrimp to the pan - if the shrimp is very wet, it will cause the oil to splatter so be careful. Add a generous amount of Everyday Seasoning or your own blend of Kosher salt and pepper to the shrimp. When shrimp starts to turn pink, flip and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Once both sides are pink, remove from heat. Squeeze lime juice evenly over the shrimp. Set aside.
- Dice tomatoes and red onion. Mix together in a bowl with a squeeze of lemon juice. Cut the corn off the cob. Add to a separate bowl with a squeeze of lime juice. Throw some chopped cilantro on both the corn and tomato/onion mixture.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the dressing.
