Spicy Shrimp Mango Salad

Whenever the weather warms up, instead of craving pasta and chili, I want grilled chicken and salads and fruit. At least its a good change in my eating habits. As I've said before, frozen shrimp is a great choice for weeknight dinners. It can be thawed very quickly, doesn't require a lot of time to marinate, and cooks in just a few minutes.


Fruit and salads don't belong together in everyone's mind but if you haven't tried it, give it a chance. The sweet and spicy goes great together. This particular salad was one of my favorite seafood dishes, grilled mahi mahi topped with mango salsa. The Caribbean jerk marinade for the shrimp works great in this salad because it has a bit of heat but the marinade is also a little sweet. The marinade looks like a lot of ingredients, but its mostly pantry staples and comes together very quickly.

Spicy Shrimp Mango Salad

Salad:
3 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
3 cups baby spinach
1 mango, diced
18-20 medium shrimp, marinaded (see below)
1/2 cup black beans
1/2 cup corn kernels
1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp to pan and cook about 3 minutes, turn over and cook on remaining side 1-2 minutes just until opaque. Remove shrimp to a plate and add reserved marinade, black beans and corn to pan. Cook about 3 minutes until hot and sauce is slightly thickened. Add to shrimp and mango and top with cilantro. Add lettuce and spinach to a large bowl or divide among plates. Top with shrimp mixture and serve. (Add dressing if desired, with the reduced marinade, I didn't need one but I'm not a big dressing person to begin with. A simple honey lime vinaigrette would be perfect.)

(Note: I would also have added some diced jicama to this but my husband is not a fan and I don't use enough of it to buy it just for me but it goes perfectly with this if you like it.)

Marinade:
1 jalapeno, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T brown sugar
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 T fresh thyme
1 tsp salt
Juice of 1 lime
2 T olive oil
1 T dark rum
1 T orange juice

Mix all ingredients together in a plastic bag or shallow bowl, remove 2 T of marinade and set aside. Add thawed shrimp. For a milder marinade, remove ribs and seeds from jalapeno; to make it spicier, leave the seeds and ribs in. Toss to coat and refrigerate for about 20-30 minutes.