Summer Salads at I Heart Cooking Clubs

Southerners love their salads.

Of course, you know these aren't healthy salads full of lettuce and dried cranberries and nuts.

Our salads are the creamy variety. Creamy macaroni salads, potato salads, and sweet pea salads. Chicken salad. Coleslaw. If there's no mayo, it ain't a salad.

Mayo is a food I have a love-hate with. It's one of those things that I'd rather not work with because looking at it skeeves me out. But there's no denying that those sweet potato fries are a jillion and three times better dipped in chipotle mayo. And turkey sandwiches go from "meh" to "my!" with a smear of basil mayo.

This shrimp salad from Rick Bayless uses avocado, not mayo, to get that just right creaminess.

The avocado dressing reminded me of the first time I ate guacamole salad at a dive Tex-Mex restaurant in Bryan Texas. I loved the guac paired with lettuce. So, I decided to top our tostadas with lettuce and spoon the shrimp salad on top.

Tostadas Topped w/ Avocado Dressed Shrimp from Rick Bayless

This is supposed to be served on mini tostadas as an appetizer. I used full size and we called it supper. We all liked this one a lot. Great flavors in the avocado dressing--lime, onion, tomato, some heat from jalapeno. Nice colors. Festive and fun. This may be The Husband's favorite Rick Bayless recipe so far. For me, it's second to Potatoes w/ Chorizo, but a very close second.

Know what I liked best about the shrimp salad? This was a super-awesome meal for a hot, humid summer night. Didn't have to cook a single thing!

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Tostadas Topped w/ Avocoado Dressed Shrimp a la Mexicana

adapted from Mexico One Plate at a Time by Rick Bayless

Also found at Frontera recipes

• about 2 1/2 cups small, peeled and deveined cooked shrimp
• 1/4 medium white onion, chopped
• 1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 large jalapeno, stemmed and roughly chopped
• 1 medium avocado, pitted, flesh scooped from the skin and chopped
• 1/3 cup (loosely packed) chopped parsley*
• Salt
• hot sauce
• lettuce

6-8 tostadas

In a medium bowl, combine the shrimp, onion and tomato. Measure the lime juice into a blender. Cover and turn on. Drop in the jalapeno. When chopped, turn off and add the avocado and parsley. Blend until smooth. Thin to a "creamy dressing" consistence with water if needed--no more than about 2 to 3 tablespoons. Taste and season with salt and hot sauce.

Mix the dressing into the shrimp mixture. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface and refrigerate. When you're ready to serve, top tostadas with lettuce. Spoon the shrimp a la mexicana on top and serve

*I use parsley in place of cilantro since no one in my family (except me) likes cilantro.

Need more summer salads? Visit I Heart Cooking Clubs for this week's Summer Salad theme.

Also linking with

Cookbook Sundays @ Couscous & Consciousness

Dishing It Up Recipe Hop

July's theme: "Beat the Heat/No Cook"