George Gershwin wrote the famous lyrics, “Summertime and the livin’ is easy.” Clearly he didn’t have to put dinner on the table every night regardless of the season. It’s true - sometimes people who love to cook and eat (me) just run out of ideas. That’s how I was feeling yesterday as I stared into freezer waiting for something to look delicious….and easy. As luck would have it, something did just that – shrimp! We had a lovely bag of large gulf easy peel shrimp, bought on sale with no particular plan, but perfect for a summer supper. Ok, now what to do with it. Every shrimp can’t be our favorite Barbeque Shrimp, so it was an obvious opportunity to invent a new favorite. According to my guys, we did just that! Here’s the big reveal: we made honey grilled shrimp on spinach salad with hot bacon dressing. That name may be too long, but aren’t there just a lot of yummy sounding things there? And best of all, it really was easy. I’ll be making this not just for a summer supper, but for company as well, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a hit.
Here’s what you do, peel some shrimp and throw it in a bowl with Italian salad dressing, honey and paprika. Let it marinate while you light the grill and decide what to put in your salad. No grill – the broiler in your oven will be just fine. I basically used the spinach salad recipe in my cookbook, You’re Grown-Now You Can Cook. Hard-boiled eggs, red onion, mushrooms, and of course, bacon, were our topping of choice. You could add other veggies – I suggested sliced radishes – but that got shot down pretty quickly. The rest is a breeze. Thread your shrimp on skewers, cook several pieces of bacon and drain reserving the bacon grease, grill the shrimp, make the dressing and just enjoy the meal and the inevitable compliments that will follow. This is a new “summertime is easy” dinner in our house and I hope yours too.
Honey Grilled Shrimp on Spinach Salad
Ingredients
1 lb large shrimp, peeled
½ cup Italian dressing
½ cup honey
1 Tbsp paprika
Course pepper for grilling
1 bag prewashed spinach
6 large mushrooms, thinly sliced
½ red onion, thinly sliced
2 hard boiled eggs, thinly sliced
6 slices bacon, cooked – reserve 2 Tbsp bacon fat
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Mix salad dressing, honey and paprika in a large bowl.
Add shrimp to marinate while you prepare the salad.
Light grill or preheat broiler.
Put spinach in a large salad bowl.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Thread shrimp on skewers, sprinkle with a little course ground black pepper, and grill over direct heat about 3 or 4 minutes on each side, until cooked through.
Allow shrimp to cool briefly while you make the dressing.
Reheat bacon fat. Add sugar to skillet to dissolve and add vinegar. (It will steam a bit)
Stir to combine and immediately pour hot dressing over the spinach.
Top with mushrooms, onion, eggs, and crumbled bacon.
Put shrimp on top. Yum!
