We all need a little breath of spring these days, even if we can’t go outside as often. For me, that means a main-dish salad. This tasty, crunchy salad from Real Simple uses shrimp and romaine as its base, tossed with a salty/creamy/ginger dressing and topped with avocado, cucumber and scallions. Frozen shrimp is fine and you can substitute any hardy lettuce, such as iceberg. Regular cucumber can replace the small Persian ones, and if you don’t have avocado just use what’s in the fridge, such as radishes, carrots or peppers.

Avoiding Additives and Preservatives

I use Hellman’s mayonnaise and Marukan rice vinegar. Use tamari instead of soy sauce, because it uses alcohol as a preservative instead of sodium benzoate. Look for frozen shrimp using only salt as a preservative. Simply Natural Organic sriracha is additive-free.

The salad is tossed with a tamari-ginger dressing

Japanese-style shrimp salad

Ingredients:

1/3 cup (85 ml) mayonnaise

3 tbsp (45 ml) tamari or soy sauce

3 tbsp (45 ml) rice vinegar

2 tbsp (30 ml) sesame oil

2 tbsp (30 ml) canola oil

½ tsp (2.5 ml) finely chopped fresh ginger

¼ tsp (1.25 ml) sugar

1 ½ lb. (680 g) peeled, deveined and cooked large shrimp

3 romaine lettuce hearts, chopped

2 avocados, cubed

2 Persian cucumbers, thinly sliced

¼ cup (60 ml) thinly sliced scallions

Sesame seeds for serving

Sriracha for serving (optional)

Lime wedges, for serving

Preparation:

Stir mayonnaise, tamari, vinegar, oils, ginger and sugar in a large bowl.

Add shrimp and lettuce; toss to coat.

Top with avocados, cucumbers and scallions. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Drizzle with sriracha, if using. Serve with lime wedges. Serves 4.

From Real Simple