Southwest Salad with Shrimp
This southwest salad with shrimp has it all – crisp romaine, creamy avocado, hearty black beans and straight-from-the-cob corn with sliced red onions and cilantro. Then, it’s topped with perfectly, pan-seared shrimp and finished with a drizzle of honey chipotle vinaigrette for a nice little kick of heat.
Why you’ll love this southwest salad with pan seared shrimp
The dressing is incredible, perfectly balancing sweet, savory, and spicy flavors, and it’s incredibly easy to make—just blend or process everything together. Preparing the salad is simple too; only about half of the ingredients need chopping, while the rest just get rinsed or tossed into the bowl. This salad is also very filling, packed with multiple proteins and plenty of fiber from the veggies, ensuring that this dinner salad will more than satisfy your hunger.
If you like this recipe, you have to try this arugula zucchini salad, and this tropical salad with mango dressing and this avocado, orange and beetroot salad.
Searching for more shrimp recipes? Old bay shrimp scampi / Shrimp toast / Easy peel and eat shrimp / Shrimp po boy
Ingredients & substitutions
- Shrimp – We normally purchase large or extra large shrimp. Tails on or off is your preference, just make sure to your shrimp are peeled and deveined.
- Baking soda – This is really important in the brine for shrimp.
- Romaine lettuce – To make this recipe easier, I buy a bag of prepped romaine lettuce salad.
- Black beans – You can use any kind of beans you want, or feel free to leave them out.
- Red onion – I chose a red onion because they’re great in salads and they add color to the recipe. You could also use a sweet onion, or even sliced green onions.
- Tomatoes – I used grape tomatoes for this salad, but you can use whatever tomatoes you like the best.
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions listed below are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
The following is a detailed overview of the recipe steps with added tips and tricks for recipe success. For a simplified and printable version, including ingredient amounts and more formal instructions, see the recipe card below.
How to make this southwest salad
Pan sear the shrimp. In a large bowl, cover the shrimp with cold water and stir in salt & baking soda. Let the shrimp brine for about 30 minutes. Then, drain and pat dry with paper towels. Lightly season the shrimp with garlic powder, salt & pepper.
Working in batches, sear the shrimp in a large non-skillet over high heat, turning once, until the shrimp have turned pink and are completely opaque (about 1-2 minutes per side). Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Make the dressing. Combine ingredients in the bowl of a food processor or blender. Process until smooth. Use immediately or transfer to an air tight container to refrigerate until ready to use.
You may also have a bit of extra dressing leftover, depending on how much you use. Feel free to store it in the fridge for up to 1 week.
Prep the veggies. Wash and clean your lettuce. Chop tomatoes and cilantro. Drain and rinse black beans. If needed, remove your corn from the cob. Slice and rinse your red onion to take away some of their intensity. Wait to slice avocado until just before serving.
Assemble the salad. When you’re ready to serve your salad, add all of the ingredients to a large salad bowl and top with your desired amount of dressing.
Frequently asked questions
Ingredients
- 1 pound shrimp (peeled and deveined)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 head romaine lettuce (chopped)
- 1 avocado (sliced)
- 2 ripe tomatoes tomatoes
- 1 15- ounce can black beans (drained and rinsed)
- 1 1/2 cups frozen corn (thawed)
- 1/2 cup sliced red onion
- 1/4 cup cilantro (chopped)
- 6 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons honey
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1-2 chipotle peppers
- ½ – 1 tablespoon adobo sauce
- 2 garlic cloves
- ½ teaspoon coarse salt
Instructions
For the shrimp:
- In a large bowl, cover the shrimp with cold water and stir in salt & baking soda. Let the shrimp brine for about 30 minutes. Then, drain and pat dry with paper towels. Lightly season the shrimp with garlic powder, salt & pepper.
- Working in batches, sear the shrimp in a large non-skillet over high heat, turning once, until the shrimp have turned pink and are completely opaque (about 1-2 minutes per side). Transfer to a plate and set aside.
For the dressing:
- Combine ingredients in the bowl of a food processor or blender. Process until smooth.
- Transfer to an air tight container and refrigerate until ready to use.
For the salad:
- Combine ingredients in a large bowl.
- Top with vinaigrette and toss to combine. Serve immediately.
Avocado and cilantro–yes!
How many servings does this recipe make?
About 4. It really depends if you have it as a side or as meal on it’s own.
I made this salad for dinner last night. It is pretty good, but the dressing needs some tweaking. A big thumbs up for brining the shrimp – they were tender and delicious. I think the salad ingredients and proportions were spot on. However, we found the dressing to have far too much lemon. 6 tablespoons was way too much lemon juice. The lemon overpowered every other flavor except for a faint heat from the chipolte. I managed to salvage it by adding more honey, more adobo, and resorted to adding 1/4 tsp of baking soda to neutralize the lemon. I think the lemon still should have been toned down a bit further for the flavors to be in balance. I used fresh lemon juice — perhaps my lemons were unusually pungent. I’ll definitely make the salad again, but will revamp the dressing.