The Mindful Epicurean

What do you make when you have leftover shrimp? I wanted to find a way to use about a half pound of roasted shrimp from a wonderful dinner we had with friends the other evening. Shrimp salad seemed like a perfect solution!

A lot of shrimp salads tend to be mayonnaise based, but I wanted something a bit lighter. I opted for a Prosecco vinegar dressing with Dijon and olive oil.

Adding capers gives the salad a bright pop of saltiness, which works well with the sweetness of the shrimp. The shallots add some crunch and offer a slight peppery onion and garlic flavor, but a bit more delicately than a red onion would. I tend to use shallots in almost every recipe that calls for red onion for that very reason. They just don’t seem as overpowering.

I served the shrimp salad in fresh endive petals, which are a great vehicle for all kinds of things. Endive is a leaf vegetable that has a slightly bitter taste and is a member of the Chicory family along with radicchio and puntarelle.

The delicate flavor and crunch of the endive really make this dish a fresh and clean lunch, appetizer or side accompaniment to an entree like fish or pasta. You could serve the salad chilled or at room temperature and also make ahead of time since the endive holds up well to the salad and doesn’t tend to get soggy.

I included some Mary’s Gone Super Seed crackers, which are gluten free and have a little more than 1g of carbs per cracker, to help scoop up any shrimp salad that decided to abandon the endive petals. They were a great compliment and would be a wonderful substitute if you don’t have endive on hand.