This Grilled Shrimp Salad is bursting with freshness, flavour, colour and crunch. It's easy, casual and absolutely delicious. Everything we want summer eating to be.
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Cooking & Eating Outdoors
Warm weather means we can fire up the grill and cook outdoors. It also brings all the fresh produce and now is the time to take full advantage of it. Like this Jerk Chicken Salad, this recipe has a ton of fresh and delicious ingredients.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
There's so much to love!
- This is a whole meal salad, so you just toss it all together. It's effortless.
- Three of the ingredients: shrimp, corn, and bell pepper go on the grill, adding delicious smoky, fire roasted flavour.
- The rest of the ingredients are fresh and full of flavour and crunch.
- It's a super healthy meal!
- No need to heat up your kitchen using the stove.
What You Will Need
For The Grill:
- Shrimp Fresh or frozen and defrosted. I prefer the tails off, but you can leave them on.
- Corn Remove the husk to get a nice char.
- Red Bell Pepper You can also use orange or yellow peppers.
For the Salad
- Cucumber Adds crunch. I like using a long English because you don't have to peel them.
- Grape Tomatoes Or cherry tomatoes.
- Cilantro Compliments the Southwest flavours here, but if you aren't a fan, use parsley or just leave it out.
- Red Onion You can also use shallots or scallions.
- Mixed greens The mix keeps it interesting, but use romaine, leaf, or any greens or a combo!
- Avocado Adds so much creamy texture, flavour, and nutrition. Don't leave it out.
For the Dressing,
- Olive Oil
- Honey
- Lime Juice
- Garlic
- Red Pepper Flakes
How To Make It
Toss the shrimp with lime juice and chili powder.
Grill the corn, bell pepper and shrimp.
Toss everything together with honey lime vinaigrette.
Helpful Tips
- Grill the shrimp on skewers, either wood or metal. If you're using wood skewers, soak them in water for 10-15 minutes before threading the shrimp on them. This will keep them from burning on the grill.
- Remove the husk from the corn before grilling so it can get slightly charred for maximum smoky flavour.
- Grill the bell pepper until the skin just starts to blister and char.
- Slice the avocado at the end of your prep time to avoid it browning.
- Use a jar with a lid to shake your dressing ingredients together, or use an immersion blender.
Recipe FAQ's
You can use frozen shrimp as long as they you defrost them. You can defrost them overnight in the fridge, or for quicker defrosting, put the frozen shrimp in a colander and run them under cold water for 5-6 minutes.
Shrimp are tender and don't need to be marinated for very long. For this recipe, we toss them just in lime juice and chilli powder and set aside while the grill heats, which is a long enough marinating time.
It's easy to tell when shrimp are cooked because they will turn pink, the flesh will turn opaque, and they will curl tightly into a C shape.
If shrimp have a rubbery texture, it's usually because they were overcooked. Shrimp don't need much time on the grill, so pay close attention to them while cooking.
More Grilling Ideas
Shrimp is easy and delicious on the grill. This grilled shrimp salad is delicious with chilli lime shrimp and you can use other flavour combinations too. We also love Lemon Garlic Grilled Shrimp.
We love to grill everything! Some of our favourites are:
- Cheese: Grilled Halloumi & Watermelon Salad,
- Chicken: Grilled Harissa Chicken Drumsticks,
- Veggies: Grilled Sesame Shishito Peppers,
- Salmon: Grilled Asian Salmon Kebabs
- Fruit: Spiced Rum Grilled Peaches
Recipe
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Grilled Shrimp Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 lb shrimp peeled, deveined
- 1 lime juice of
- 1 tablespoon chilli powder I used a mild blend.
- 1 ear of corn husk and silk removed
- 1 red bell pepper halved, cored and seeded
- 4 cups mixed salad greens
- 1 cup cucumber (½ long English cucumber) chopped
- 1 cup grape tomatoes (about 5 oz) halved
- ½ small red onion (one cup sliced onion) sliced
- 1 avocado sliced
- 2 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin
Dressing
- 2 tablespoon honey
- 1 lime juice of
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoon fresh cilantro chopped
Instructions
Grilling
- In a bowl, toss the shrimp with lime juice and the chilli powder making sure they are coated.
- Thread the shrimp onto 12 skewers
- Brush the corn and bell pepper all over with olive oil
- Heat grill to medium high and spray or brush the grates with oil
- Place the shrimp, corn, and bell pepper on the grill and cook, turning the corn often. Cook the shrimp for 3 minutes per side or until they turn pink and opaque. Cook the bell pepper 4-5 minutes per side or until the skin blisters and begins to char. The corn should cook a total of 10-12 minutes until the kernels are fork tender and start to brown.
- Remove everything from the grill as they cook.
- Remove the shrimp from the skewers.
- Remove the corn kernels from the cob. (See note)
- Slice the bell pepper.
Salad Dressing
- Put all the dressing ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake until everything is blended.
Salad
- Put salad greens, cucumber, tomatoes, onion, avocado, corn, and bell pepper slices into a large salad bowl.
- Top the salad with the shrimp and drizzle everything with the honey lime dressing.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve
Terri
Great summer recipe! I love the lime chill grilled shrimp the best- yum!!!
Colleen
Hi Terri, so glad you love it! The chilli lime is simple but delicious.
AmyG
I love shellfish in salads and this salad is no exception. A great tasting salad filled with wholesome nutrients that will fuel your body with the energy it needs. Delicious!
Colleen
Hi Amy, I'm so happy to hear that you loved it! Thanks for letting me know!
Sean
Great, fresh, summery salad! I love shrimp in a salad but it tends to sort of disappear a little without some added spice. The combination of chili powder and the lime & cilantro in the dressing is perfect!
Colleen
Hi Sean, so happy that you enjoyed it!
Sharon
You are right!! This was a delicious summer dish 🙂 Great tip about not overcooking the shrimp - they sure don't take long on the grill.
Colleen
So happy you loved it, Sharon! Yes, shrimp cook so quickly, don't they?
Heidi Fink
This looks SO delicious and summery, Colleen. Can't wait to try it at the lakehouse on the long weekend.
Colleen
Hi Heidi! Enjoy the long weekend and it sounds lovely to have a lakehouse! This salad will be a perfect touch.
Shelby @Fitasamamabear
I know some people don't like cilantro but it would be perfect in this salad (I personally love it haha)
Colleen
Hi Shelby, I'm also a lover of cilantro but I know there are those who can't stand it! ( Poor them 😊) but I think parsley will work for those folks just as well.
Bernice
Yes! I could eat this salad on repeat during the heat of summer. It has all the flavours I like and just a small amount of cooking time. Perfect for the heat wave.
Colleen
Hi Bernice, this is one of our repeats here in the summer too. Enjoy!