There are few things one can be cooked as quickly as a simple sauté. But simple doesn’t mean flavorless. The sauteed shrimp in this dish are full of flavor and made more interesting by adding them to cool, fresh, greens, and perfectly ripe avocado.

Use any greens you like. I used romaine hearts because they can stand up to the weight of the shrimp and stay crispy. Then I topped it with diced avocado, tomatoes; garnished with a few bits of fresh chives and added a squash of fresh (Meyer) lemon. I didn’t need any extra oil because I used the oil that I sauteed the shrimp in…which was by then infused with the garlic and the flavor of the shrimp. #crazygood!

Ingredients

(recipe is for 1 or two…can easily be doubled or tripled)

6 medium/large shrimp per person – cleaned and deveined

Heaping cup or two of fresh salad greens (per person)

1 ripe avocado – cut in half, pit removed, diced and removed from the skin

Handful of grape or cherry tomatoes – halved

2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil – or enough to cover the bottom of the pan

1 medium clove garlic – finely chopped

Juice of 1/2 lemon – Meyer lemon if possible (they’re the juiciest)

Chives for garnish

Instruction

Place a medium skillet over medium/high heat. Add oil and heat until hot but not smoking

Add the shrimp and cook until the bottom turns pink and opaque, flip and cook until the other side turns opaque and the shrimp begins to curl and turn pink. Add the garlic the last 30 seconds or so.

Add a squirt of lemon and remove from the heat.

In the meantime, cut the romaine into 1/2 inch slices, add to a salad bowl along with the avocado and tomatoes.

Top with the shrimp and oil and garlic sauce from the pan. Squeeze in the remaining juice from the half lemon, season with salt and pepper and garnish with the chives.

You can also add snow peas or string beans to to sauté and crispy bacon to the salad if you like…and then it will look like this:

The creamy dressing for this version is a teaspoon of store purchased creamy italian dressing mixed in with the oil and garlic from the sautéed shrimp – a sneaky shortcut since I have yet to perfect my own creamy italian dressing…hehe! Enjoy.