- Time
- 15 MIN
- Serves
- 2 (DOUBLE FOR 4)
- Skill
- PARING KNIFE
- Tools
- KNIFE, BOARD, BOWL
- Heat
- Warm
- Protein
- Bring your own
Louie is the old West Coast seafood salad with the pink dressing: mayonnaise, a little ketchup, lemon and relish. It sounds odd and tastes exactly right with cold shrimp. A bag of cooked, peeled shrimp from the freezer case, thawed in the fridge, makes this completely no-cook.
The lineup
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tbsp sweet relish
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- A few drops of hot sauce
- 1 bag (12 oz) cooked peeled shrimp, thawed and patted dry
- 1 romaine heart, rough chopped
- 1 Persian cucumber, diced
- 1 plum tomato, diced
- 2 peeled hard-boiled eggs, diced
- 1 ripe avocado, diced
- Salt and pepper
The chop
- Whisk the mayonnaise, ketchup, relish, lemon juice and hot sauce in the bottom of the bowl.
- Rough chop the shrimp and add them to the bowl. Toss until coated.
- Add the romaine, cucumber and tomato. Toss again.
- Add the eggs and avocado and fold gently, two or three turns.
- Taste, then add salt and pepper until it tastes right to you.
The extras
Dodge the Carbs
Swap the ketchup and sweet relish for 1 tsp of tomato paste and 1 tbsp of dill relish.
Future You
Make the dressing up to 4 days ahead. Chop and toss everything else just before eating.
Show Off
Add a handful of pitted black olives and a few spears of jarred asparagus.
Flavor Bomb
Add 4 oz of chopped imitation crab to make it a crab and shrimp Louie, or swap the dressing for Yum Yum Sauce.
Heat Dial
Mild: leave out the hot sauce. Warm: as written. Hot: 1 tsp of prepared horseradish and 1 tsp of sriracha in the dressing, cocktail-sauce style.
Keep Your Fingers
Thaw shrimp overnight in the fridge, never on the counter, and eat this the day you make it.
