Shrimp and crab louie salad

It's the second week of September and the weather has yet to cool down; it actually feels like it's hotter now in Los Angeles than it was during the summer! There's nothing better than a nice refreshing meal on such days and this salad sure delivers.

Shrimp and Crab Louie Salad

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

Dressing:

1 cup mayo

3 tbsp ketchup

1 tbsp sweet pickle relish

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tsp Tabasco

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp sweet smoked paprika

14 tsp chile powder

salt and pepper

Salad:

3/4 lb asparagus

two 6-ounce romaine hearts, cut crosswise 1/2 inch thick

one 6-ounce seedless cucumber, thinly sliced or cut into spears

4 large radishes, thinly sliced

4 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges (optional)

4 hard-boiled eggs, cut into wedges

1 lb crabmeat, preferably Dungeness

8 oz poached shrimp

Directions

1. Prepare the dressing: In a bowl, whisk the mayonnaise with the ketchup, relish, lemon juice, garlic, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, and chile powder and season with salt and pepper. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the salad: In a medium saucepan of boiled salted water, cook the asparagus until just tender, 3 minutes. Drain and cool.
3. Arrange the romaine, cucumber, radishes, tomatoes, eggs, and asparagus on a platter. Top with large chunks of the crab meat and shrimp and serve, passing the dressing at the table.

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving: 498 calories, 34.5g fat (5.9g saturated, 17g polyunsaturated, 8.9g monounsaturated), 13.3g carbohydrates, 3.7g fiber, 33.6g protein

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

As far as salads go, this is really easy to prepare especially because there is minimal cooking involved. For directions on how to poach shrimp, click the link above. You can also choose to only have crab.

The dressing is similar to 1000 island dressing. 

This salad is light, fresh, and just darn delicious. You need that creamy dressing to bring everything together so the dressing is perfect. I tried it with balsamic vinegar and it really wasn't the same. I imagine the addition of avocado or even cheese would be great to this salad, giving that creaminess the salad lacks.

I served this salad along with homemade cheddar cheese yorkshire pudding which came out surprisingly well. Yum yum! Now this is my kind of lunch!