Grilled Fruit Coconut Shrimp Salad with Citrus Wit Bier Dressing

Recipe

While I could eat the grilled jalapeno-peach crostini for a meal by itself, I went the mature route and made a salad to go with them.

A giant, grilled fruit, coconut shrimp salad. And don’t worry, there’s a vegan version too.

First up, the coconut shrimp.

Grilled Coconut Shrimp

1/2 lb shrimp

4 Tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp cayenne

dash of cumin

1/4 cup orange juice

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

Set up three small bowls with the following: cornstarch, cayenne, & cumin in one; orange juice; coconut flakes.

Dip de-shelled shrimp into the cornstarch mixture. Wipe off extra cornstarch so there’s just a light coating. Dip into orange juice, then coconut flakes.

Place shrimp on hot grill. Cook a few minutes on each side, until shrimp just turns pink. Alternatively you can bake them in 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Now time for the salad. Grilled fruit is 10x better than sliced bread. I haven’t met a fruit I don’t like better grilled…this was just my excuse to eat a lot of it.

Grilled Fruit Salad

1 head romaine

1/2 pineapple

1 mango

1 orange bell pepper

Slice fruit and pepper into long strips.

Heat on grill.

Chop lettuce and top with grilled fruit.

And of course you can’t have salad without salad dressing. {Well you can, but it’s way better if you do.}

This dressing is probably best made a day ahead so the flavors can meld together, but if you have to, you can make it last minute. {Just make extra so it’s really good the next time. }

Citrus Witbier Salad Dressing

3 Tbsp olive oil

2 tsp diced shallot

1/2 garlic clove, diced

2 tsp dijon mustard

3 Tbsp wit bier {like New Belgium’s Mothership Wit}

splash of honey

If you can’t make the dressing the day before, you might want to pop the shallot and the garlic on the grill for a few minutes before dicing- it’ll mellow the sharp flavors of the fresh shallot and garlic so they don’t overwhelm your dressing. Otherwise, just leave them raw.

Place ingredients in a jar and shake to combine. Couldn’t be easier.

To put it all together: top romaine with fruit and coconut shrimp, then drizzle dressing on top.

Goes great with jalapeno-peach goat cheese crostini. The shrimp taste great dipped into the jalapeno-peach jelly mixture too.

Don’t eat shrimp? Make grilled coconut tempeh!

How’s that for beer pairing?