Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Herb Marinated Shrimp & Mediterranean Quinoa Salad


No lies, I was dreaming about this dinner for a week. After my dad had sent me an email with a recipe for orzo pasta with lemon juice & feta. I knew I did not want to do pasta, and I thought quinoa would make a perfect partner for it. I played around in the kitchen and the end result is a fabulous Mediterranean quinoa salad that has quickly made it into my favorites list. I want to serve it with grilled shrimp, but our grill was out of propane, so I needed to come up with something else. After mixing a few things together I came up with an amazing marinade, that I literally wanted to drink. It tasted almost like a mojito without the mint, which was bomb.com in my book. This marinade would work great on nearly any protein, so if you aren't a shrimp lover try it on chicken! I will be making this again soon!!

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

-1c. Cooked Quinoa
-1/2 red onion, diced
-2 ounces feta, crumbled
-1/4c. fresh dill, chopped (Don't substitute dried dill for this)
-1/4c. fresh parsley, chopped (If you don't already have this on hand, don't buy it just for this. It doesn't make or break the recipe, but I had some so its nice to add that earthy flavor if you have it)
-1 jar of roasted red peppers, drained and diced
-1 can of artichoke hearts packed in water, drained and quartered
-1/2c. grape tomatoes, halved

Dressing-
1 TBS olive oil
2 TBS lemon juice
1 garlic clove, pressed or finely minced

-In a bowl combine all of the salad ingredients.

-In a separate bowl mix together the dressing and then toss the dressing with the salad.

-Chill & Serve

Serving Size 1c.
The Skinny Per Serving-
Total Fat- 7.3 Calories- 209.6 Carbs- 27.6 Protein- 7.2

Herb Marinated Shrimp

-12 medium peeled & deveined shrimp
-3 Cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
-1/2c. fresh dill (dried can be used here, but I would only use 1-2 tbs.)
-1/4c. fresh basil
-2 TBS Dijon or whole grain mustard
-Juice of 1 lemon
-2 tsp olive oil
-1 tsp honey
Salt & Pepper to taste

-In a food processor, blend all ingredients until they are emulsified. The herbs will still be in small pieces, that is ok.

-Place marinade over your protein of choice. If marinating fish or shrimp, keep it to around an hour as the acid will start breaking down the proteins (ceviche anyone?!?)

-Broil shrimp until pink & cooked through. About 5 mins.

Serves 2
Serving Size 6 Shrimp

The Skinny per serving
Total- 7.4g Calories 121 Carbs- 0.7g Protein- 8.8g

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