The Best Salad Recipes with Shrimp
Sitting down to a shrimp salad feels like such an elevated experience. Even preparing one makes me feel like I’m cooking something very special. I have created a few uniquely spectacular salad recipes with shrimp, and I can unequivocally say that when entertaining a group, shrimp salad is indeed a showstopper!
Teri’s Tips for Selecting, Purchasing, & Preparing Perfect Shrimp
A wonderful Shrimp Salad begins with the freshest, most delicious shrimp you can find. And remember: shrimp is an easy ingredient to overcook.
Happily, my easy shrimp recipes will absolutely help you avoid overcooking. But if you’re not up for cooking your own and you have a fantastic place to purchase cooked seafood that makes life easier for you, by all means, head right on over.
What should you look for when buying shrimp?
When buying fresh shrimp, please note that if shrimp (or scallops) ever have an ammonia smell, don’t buy them. I’m not an expert, but if the shells feel soft or slimy, I’d simply take a pass on those as well. If you can’t be sure about the fresh shrimp, head to the frozen section.
Is it better to buy frozen or fresh shrimp?
Frozen shrimp will taste better, cook better, and feel better than fresh shrimp that aren’t truly fresh. And the truth about shrimp is that unless you’re living on the Gulf or an ocean, they have been previously frozen anyway.
The Most Flavorful Way to Cook Shrimp for Salads
My Sizzling Shrimp recipe is a truly delicious way to prepare shrimp, and if you use my method, Sizzling Shrimp will become a dish you’ll want to make again and again.
I love cooking shrimp in the shell because it protects them a bit and also enhances their flavor in the same way that a pork chop tastes better when it’s bone-in.
I finish the shrimp with melted butter and hot sauce, which combine to create a magical glaze.
Plus, it’s a twofer, because after using the marinade, you can also cook the shrimp in it. Marinate them for 20 minutes, remove them from the marinade, sauté in olive oil for a couple of minutes per side, and you might even add a little butter at the end. That alone is perfectly lovely, but if you want to take it to the next level, you’ll love this red, buttery, sumptuous glaze. It’s amazing over rice and probably has endless other uses, so use your imagination and see where it takes you.
Teri’s favorite MAGIC ELIXIR to make with shrimp shells:
- After you cook shell-on shrimp, before eating, you peel them off, then throw them all into a saucepan filled with water, and cook for 30 minutes, which will make a lovely little seafood stock to use in the future. Put it in the freezer and add that broth to any sauce or use it to cook pasta or rice.
More of Teri’s Fabulous Salad Recipes With Shrimp.
Whether you’re making my Picante Shrimp Salad with a Lime Caesar Dressing or Shrimp Louie, shrimp offers so many amazing choices, and here’s the thing: feel free to make a Sizzling Everyday Roasted Chicken Breast instead and serve it to your non-shrimp eaters.
The Ideal Moments to Serve Salad Recipes with Shrimp.
Salad recipes with shrimp are perfect for a luncheon, especially if you’re having a group of friends over and you really want to blow them away with something fantastic. Or prepare a beautiful shrimp salad for lunch on a weekend and serve it with a glass of wine when you have time to linger over the table.
A Simple Summer Celebration Wedge Salad recipe
The perfect wedge salad recipe for summer! This simple salad has the best of the season with corn, shrimp, and a charred scallion dressing. What I love about a wedge salad, besides how delicious they are, is just how much fun you can have assembling all of your ingredients.
Seafood Salad
Oh, how I love a Seafood Salad, and the one from my cookbook is truly spectacular! I love to make this salad with shrimp for Roy and I on the weekends when we can sit down with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and truly enjoy great food and each other’s company.
Whole30 Shrimp Nicoise Salad with Remoulade Sauce
This delicious recipe combines many incredible ingredients that make for a spectacular Whole30 salad! The simple 20-minute marinade followed by tossing the shrimp in a mixture of warm clarified butter and hot sauce that has been whisked together to make a Magic Elixir that really makes this recipe a standout dish with BIG flavor!
Picante Shrimp Salad with Lime Caesar Dressing
I’m so delighted about this delicious salad. We created a method for the shrimp that makes it perfect every time. It’s super easy: just sauté, add the clarified butter, then toss in the picante spice blend. And let’s not even get started on my Lime Caesar Dressing; it’s a run, don’t walk situation. Great on this shrimp salad, but perfect on so many other dishes too!
Shrimp Louie Salad
Shrimp Louie Salad is both fun to eat and sure to please guests. A salad is only as good as its ingredients, so using the very best ingredients, like shrimp that you can find will elevate your salad to “Wow” status!
Whole30 Shrimp and Chorizo Mixed Grill
Here is a fantastic one-dish entree with something for everyone and a fantastic dipping sauce. I always prefer preparing shrimp with the shell on. It adds so much flavor, and the leftover shells are a magic elixir of their own because they can lead you to a very easy and delicious shrimp stock. With this dish, there are always great leftovers to re-purpose for breakfast, another day, or lunch to go.
If you make any of my salad recipes with shrimp, or this Shrimp Greek Salad, be sure to rate the recipe with a star rating and leave a comment below!
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Shrimp Greek Salad
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4 – 6 servings
- Category: Salad
- Method: Assembled
- Cuisine: Greek
Description
Teri’s most spectacular salad recipes with shrimp, and a easy Shrimp Greek Salad recipe that is a real showstopper!
Ingredients
For Feta Vinaigrette:
- ½ cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons chives
- 4-5 ounces sheep’s milk feta, drained
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 2-3 tablespoons water
For shrimp:
- 1 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 lemon, juice and zest
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
For salad:
- 8 ounces romaine, washed and dried
- salt
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- ¾ pound cucumber, sliced
- 3/4 cup (4-6 ounces) pepperoncini, sliced
- 8 ounces California green olives, pitted
- ¾ pound sheep’s milk feta in brine
- 1 avocado, sliced
- Marinated Red Onions, optional
Instructions
Make the vinaigrette.
- In a food processor, blender, or in a jar with an immersion blender, blend all of the ingredients. Set aside.
Make the shrimp.
- Place the shrimp in a large bowl and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine the olive oil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, lemon zest, lemon juice and garlic, stirring well. Pour the mixture over the shrimp in the other bowl, toss to coat. Let marinate for about 20 minutes.
- Place a large frying pan over high heat to get it really hot. Using a slotted spoon to allow the excess marinade to drain off, arrange the shrimp in a single layer in the pan and cook until golden, about 1 to 2 minutes each side.
Assemble the salad.
- Make a bed of greens on your serving platter and salt them. Arrange the tomatoes, cucumbers, pepperoncini, olives, feta, avocado, and shrimp over the top. Drizzle with feta vinaigrette or serve with dressing on the side. Top with marinated red onions.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 606
- Sugar: 7 g
- Sodium: 1406 mg
- Fat: 50.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 17.3 g
- Protein: 26.7 g
- Cholesterol: 172.5 mg
Keywords: shrimp, greek salad, shrimp greek salad, shrimp salad, salad recipes with shrimp
Do you have a copy of the No Crumbs Left cookbook yet?
Food is my love language, and this book is a guide to getting you in the kitchen with me, rolling up your sleeves, and reigniting passion for everyday cooking. Woven throughout the book are my Teri’s Tips as well.
This cookbook is a love letter to my mother because it offers the recipe for a well-lived life.
The reason I love your recipes ,and cookbook is every salad is beautifully composed and a pleasure to serve on a pretty platter and eat. My partner Steve is a happy participant in the 3 salad a week entree! Love your take on life! Best to you, Carol
Howdy ma’am,
I haven’t tried any of your recipes but I’ve cooked almost forty years since I was a toddler (fried eggs) and held every position you can in a kitchen but mostly in volunteer work even though I’ve had paid positions in it….
I can tell by the pictures alone but the recipe also you make your food with love and passion. Heck, it’s one thing that when passionate about doing it is a wonderful catharsis like gardening or anything that could be considered a hobby or actual labor of love. Such a humanity uniting beloved pastime.
Anyway, as a Texan I just wanted to impart some wisdom about Gulf shrimp for anyone whose into using them and maybe apprehensive about choosing them for some reason over real (because there’s plenty of imitation companies passing them off) Argentinian “pinks” (which are great) or some foreign stuff from overseas in the Indian Ocean or Pacific that uses questionable employees like human trafficking and no sustainable practice’s… Best not to support non vetted company’s.
Besides we get some of the best shrimp from this great country from the Gulf. From Whites, Grey’s to Royal Reds (one of the best) Gulf shrimp is the top… And if you can only get them far way frozen well please do…
The truly best way to get shrimp of course is not from a market or the seafood market on the coast generally but right off the boat essentially and straight to the box truck. We’ve done it for years. You go down and find the guy whose selling direct out of a food)box truck or stand essentially right near the dock areas off the road. You just have to ask around or Google can help with some. You’ll get shrimp at half the cost and it’s actually better than even a local seafood market.
Because the bonus is you can buy Fresh Shrimp also like a market on the coast but Get 15 or 30 pounds at a helluva deal and have a cooler full to go throw in the deep freezer what you want to put back at home. You can have a big seafood boil/grill or whatever that night and fresh shrimps in on the menu with crawfish, blue crab, oysters, etc. They should be vacuum sealed in most instances these days already and the extra cost is worth it cuz they last a long time in the deep freezer unless you want to use your own food saver (I’ve used two + year-old vacuum packed shrimp that was as fresh as the ones only frozen a couple days). But they’ll have loose product available to inspect or purchase anyway but I guarantee they’re no more than a day old and probably caught that morning practically alive fresh head on, on ice. The bonus is you can get the processed ones if you like but those cost more. Get HEAD ON shrimp. The benefits are undeniable from cost to flavor. You can process them how you please. Nothing wrong with doing deveining and leaving the head on. You can grill it, broil it, sautee, scampi or boil it BUBBA GUMP IT ?! and suck the tasty juices, seasonings, head butter out of the head… Talk about good seafood stock. Throw those heads in a bowl while you’re processing them for the “stockpile” you make later for other cooking and the shells you remove before the deconstructed thoughtfully constructed salad arrangement and later you have incredible stock for a Nice seafood bisque or Asian Thai/Chinese/Vietnamese curry stock for it, whatever you please (Seafood butter unclarified is magnificent). Put all them extra crab shell and head butter gob pieces of people don’t eat it, lobster shells and the tamal if no one likes it, whatever shells for the stock too…
I tell ya, America has more aversion to it’s food still looking at us. But! Head on shrimp ? ? are lovely, millions of Eastern hemisphere folks and down south folks can’t be wrong.
Ma’am, your seafood salad but the way, looks AWESOME ? I might add! The picante shrimp salad not too shabby either. The Shrimp Louie and your dressings…The quail eggs the perfect touch. My absolute favorite yard bird for pets, egg layers and of course mesquite & post oak grilling medium/medium well quail for the best fajitas along with some U/15s from the gulf and a nice citrus garlic marinated Angus skirt medium rare or prime Ribeye just as any true Texan would do! Tacos and fajitas a must. Thanks so much for sharing a passion that I can SEE is done well. That Greek salad, that is one of my favorites. Greek and Mediterranean food, middle eastern, Turkish. Just really really amazing stuff. I could live off tzatziki (make it a lot) and basically eat it off a flip flop.
P.S. My apologies — to much free time today.
Wish I could share my Cajun butter shrimp recipe. It’s ridiculous, long and complex but the beautiful seafood garlic butter Jus mixture it creates because it’s actually done in just the oven, (can be done on a grill cast iron skillet for smoke) but this recipe you just want some nice, thin sliced toasted French baguette ? to drag thru that beautiful Butter Au Jus “juice”, you could live off it.
Thanks again so sorry I wrote a novel. Look forward to reading seeing more stuff. Take care and Good bless your household.
★★★★★
Oh and getting shrimp they may still have some of the shrimp boat processors that are right on the doc that you can go in and get them directly from them and basically cut out any middle men. But I think you need to be prepared to buy a good amount these days. I haven’t been in a while and my folks haven’t been down in a year because dad sees some specialists down there but doesn’t have to anymore. Anywho. Hope this helps folks looking for the freshest and cheapest shrimp in the country. It’s right off the boats south of Houston.
★★★★★
An elegant evening is complete with a shrimp salad. The act of making even one makes me feel like a master chef. With shrimp, I’ve developed a few special and fantastic salad recipes. It’s great that so much information that can help us all is readily available. I really appreciate your excellent blog.
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