TASTE
Shrimp transforms salad into entree
| • | Asparagus of the sea |
By Elaine Magee
Q: I've enjoyed eating dinner salads all summer and before winter kicks in, I was hoping you could share an entree salad that calls for fish. I try to have a couple servings of fish each week.
A: What makes a salad a "dinner" or "entree" salad is basically whether or not it features a protein-rich food. This could be a grilled chicken breast, leftover steak strips, shellfish or baked tofu. A dinner salad also has to be satisfying enough to pass as the main meal physiologically and psychologically.
Embellishing a salad with interesting vegetables, beans, nuts and fruits all help transform a salad into an inviting meal.
This recipe calls for grapefruit, avocado, cooked shrimp, jicama and toasted nuts — on a bed of spinach greens. The salad dressing is kept light with grapefruit juice and lime juice and just a tablespoon of canola oil. Keep in mind that while shrimp does contribute some cholesterol, it is also very low in saturated fat and contains some omega-3 fatty acids, too. The avocado here adds quite a bit of smart fat: almost 8 grams of monounsaturated fat and 3 grams of polyunsaturated.
The grapefruit-ginger vinaigrette ties it all together. Buying pre-cooked shrimp (usually in bags in the frozen food section of your grocery store) makes this salad easy to prepare.
SHRIMP & RED GRAPEFRUIT SALAD
Vinaigrette:
For salad:
Add vinaigrette ingredients to salad dressing bottle and shake everything together well or whisk ingredients in a medium bowl.
Add spinach leaves to three salad bowls. Top decoratively with grapefruit segments, avocado slices, shrimp, and jicama. Add salt and pepper to taste over the top of the avocado and shrimp mixture.
Spoon vinaigrette evenly over the top of each salad serving and sprinkle with nuts if desired. Serve!
Makes three servings.
Omega-3 fatty acids, 1.4 g; Weight Watchers Points, 8; Omega-6 fatty acids, 1.4 g.
Elaine Magee is a registered dietitian. Find out more at www.recipedoctor.com.
