Spicy Shrimp Tacos with Cilantro Lime Sauce

Even though I love cooking, I have found the actual thought of dinner each night to be stressful. Deciding what we wanted to eat – something light or heavy? Meat or Veggies? Pasta or Burgers? What ingredients do we have in the house – since we can’t just run out and grab a lemon. Is it hot or cold out – Mother Nature really can’t make up her mind. Freezing one day where I want to make a nice hot soup, and sunny and warm the next when it seems all I want is a light fish. So even though I find the actual process of cooking to be relaxing, the question of what to cook each day has been an added pressure that I just don’t need.

Enter my trusty meal plan. Why haven’t I been doing this the whole time, you ask? Honestly, I have no idea. Common sense would think that all my meal planning would be like training for just this occasion, but for some reason I just never sat down to actually do it – decided to fly by the seat of my pants through the quarantine. Well this weekend I decided to change things up. I needed a plan. I am, after all, a planner at heart. Nothing makes me feel as calm and relaxed as a nice list or excel spreadsheet. So I sat down, pulled up weather.com and planned out our week of dinners.

For Monday we are starting with spicy shrimp tacos. As I type this I realize I should have maybe gone with Taco Tuesday, but it’s supposed to be nice tomorrow and I wanted to utilize the grill and some lamb chops we have in the freezer (check back for that recipe) – so Taco Monday it is! This taco combines spicy shrimp, with a crunchy cabbage and a cooling herby sauce on top. I like to add some creamy avocado to the bottom and my homemade pickled red onions on the top for the full experience.

Start with the cabbage slaw. Take 1 large jalapeño pepper, and slice it in half, cut out the white ribs and remove the seeds. Then julienne the pepper, which means cut it in long thing strips. NOTE: be careful not to touch your face or eyes after cutting the pepper. Add the cut up pepper to a large bowl with the shredded cabbage.

Combine the vinegar, honey, lime, salt and pepper in a bowl. Pout it over the cabbage and jalapeño and mix to combine thoroughly. Set aside and allow to marinate while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

For the sauce, place the olive oil, water, green onions, cilantro, garlic, salt, limes and greek yogurt in the food processor and blend until smooth.

For the shrimp, start by peeling and deveining if it hasn’t already been done by the store. If you don’t know how and you want to learn, click here and check out this how-to from The Kitchn. Combine all of the spices in a bowl and sprinkle over the shrimp, making sure they are completely coated.

Heat the olive oil in a large pan, and when hot, add in the shrimp in one layer. Allow to cook for 2-3 minutes until opaque on the first side, then flip and cook for another 2 minutes. Just as the color of the shrimp turns opaque, remove from the pan. You do not want to overcook shrimp. It will continue to cook after you remove it from the pan, so make sure not to leave it in too long.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. You are now ready to assemble. Start with a tortilla. I like to throw them in the microwave quickly to heat them up before I start building. Then, if desired, spread a line of mashed avocado across the tortilla. Place a row shrimp on top of the avocado, then top with the slaw.

Quick side note here about how much we love hot sauce. This is just a sampling of all the hot sauce options we have in the house, each one has it’s own use. I, especially, love spicy food and will put hot sauce on almost everything I eat — eggs, tacos, sandwiches, any meat dish, Chinese, etc. Does anyone have any hot sauce recommendations I just have to try?? I am always looking for a new taste!

OK, back on track. Add some pickled red onions and drizzle with the cilantro lime sauce and of course, the hot sauce. Fold and devour! Everyone loves taco night, and this is a great way to change it up a bit and keep something interesting during this time when all the days can blend into one.

COVID 19 NOTES:
– Usually I would use the small tortillas so that the tacos don’t look like burritos, but the store only had the large ones.
– I normally like to pell and devein my own shrimp. When I am making sauces for the shrimp or pasta, the shells offer up a ton of flavor when added to a simmering broth or sauce. This week they only had the clean shrimp so thats what I got. You do still need to go through the remove the tails.
– I didn’t have apple cider vinegar, so I used white wine vinegar. Worked just as well. Don’t stress about having the exact ingredients all the time.