Week 6: Southwestern-Style shrimp taco salad

This weeks meal was a pleasant addition to our culinary repertoire. When I told Jamie about my plan for 2011 she was, not surprisingly, thrilled. Partially because she was tired of me making fajitas every week. Anyway, for Christmas she got me a few things to help me accomplish this, I have already mentioned the ice cream maker but she also slipped a magazine in my stocking with fast healthy meals. On the front cover was this recipe and I knew it had to be the first one we tried and it did not disappoint. I will first give you the recipe and then talk about it.

Dressing
1/4 cup lime juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tsp cumin
2 Tsp minced garlic (who adds garlic by the Tsp? I used one large clove)
2 Tsp maple syrup (to me this was the clincher this or the lime juice)
2 Tsp chipotle sauce (neither of us are fans of chipotle so just used Frank's hot)

Add all of these to a bowl and whisk. Easy, parcheesi.


Salad
3/4 pound of prawns (they say medium shrimp but these are really just prawns)
2 ears of shucked corn (if you have it great but I used a good old can of niblets)
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 15oz can black beans
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
4 cups romaine lettuce (or whatever you have we used spring mix)
2 oz blue corn chips (again whatever you have around and as many as you want too)
1/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup diced avocado

Now the recipe goes on for several paragraphs about cooking the prawns. I will forgo this for a couple of reasons
1) I am lazy
2) we used frozen cooked prawns
3) I think you should cook the prawns your favorite way then drop them in the salad

The Coles notes version
Grill the prawns on skewers using a bit of the lime dressing and some love!


Our version
I had little choice here because the grocery store had a crap fresh fish section. So I went to the frozen section and grabbed some yummy looking pre-cooked prawns. When I got home I defrosted them in some warm running water and then threw them in a pan with some garlic and butter. Done!


Add corn, prawns, green onions, cilantro, black beans, tomatoes to a bowl. Drizzle with the dressing and gently toss. 


Throw this on a bed of lettuce and corn ships and you are ready to go. 


The recipe goes on to tell you to make a poor-mans Guacamole by mixing the avocado and sour cream but neither of us like sour cream so we didn't.


Mark's thoughts: An excellent, quick and healthy meal that has limitless possibilities for adaptation. I could imagine it with with pork, chicken or even just veggies. The dressing alone could be used on any type of salad you want. This will be especially awesome in the summer with a cold beer and some fresh off-the-boat BC spot prawns;-)


Jamie's thoughts: Super yum wants is again right now. Jamie added some wonderful tomatillo salsa that the L-Train got me for Christmas and said it added just a little bit more.

Just looking at this picture makes me hungry.