Talk of the Town

Holistic chef and recipe developer Laura Lea made a Brown Sugar Mustard Glazed Shrimp Salad, along with Laurel Orley, co-founder of Daily Crunch Snacks. Laurel is with a locally-based company that creates Sprouted Nut Snacks that are great for topping salads or eating alone. The Daily Crunch Snacks used in today's recipe can be purchased on Amazon, at I Love Juice Bar locations, or direct from the website at www.dailycrunchsnacks.com. For more of Laura Lea’s recipes look for Simply Laura Lea wherever you buy books, follow @lauraleabalanced on Instagram and visit https://www.simplylauralea.com/.

Brown Sugar Mustard Shrimp Salad with Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette (approximately 4 servings)

INGREDIENTS:

1 head garlic

1 cup + 2 tablespoons avocado or olive oil, divided, plus more for drizzling

16 ounces / 1 pound frozen shrimp, raw, tails-off, peeled & deveined

6 tablespoons coconut sugar or brown sugar (loosely packed)

1/4 cup + 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, divided

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8th teaspoon / pinch salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup red wine vinegar (sub white, white balsamic or apple cider)

2 teaspoons honey

8 ounce bag baby spinach (sub preferred greens of choice)

1/2 cup Daily Crunch original almonds for garnish

NOTE: Shrimp doesn’t reheat well. I personally enjoy it chilled, but if you want to enjoy it warm, make sure to cook the night you plan to serve.

Roast garlic: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and slice the top ¼” off of your garlic head, leaving the cloves exposed. Discard any papery leaves on the outside. Place head on a small piece of aluminum foil, flesh side up, and drizzle with oil. Wrap and roast for 35 minutes, then cool until you can squeeze the cloves out into a small bowl with your fingers.

Thaw shrimp: There are two methods that you can use, and either work well. Option 1: Place package in the refrigerator at least 12 hours and up to 24 before you want to start cooking. I personally put them on a plate on top of a few paper towels, in case they leak. Option 2: Do a quick-thaw by placing shrimp (out of the bag) in a large bowl of slightly lukewarm water for 10 minutes, or until soft throughout.

In a large Ziplock bag, whisk together coconut sugar/brown sugar (loosely packed), 2 tablespoons oil, ¼ cup Dijon mustard, paprika and salt. Add shrimp, seal and shake/squeeze to evenly coat and set aside.

In the meantime, make your roasted garlic vinaigrette: In a blender, combine roasted garlic cloves, 1 cup oil, ½ cup vinegar of choice, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, honey and pinches salt and pepper. Puree until smooth and creamy. Alternatively, if you don’t have a blender, whisk all ingredients EXCEPT oil in a mixing bowl. Then very slowly drizzle in oil, whisking constantly. With either method, refrigerate dressing.

Heat a large skillet to medium heat. When a drop of water sizzles as it hits the pan, add half of your shrimp, shaking off excess marinade as you remove from the bag. Cook for 2-3 minutes to get a nice golden-brown color, then flip and cook another 2-3 minutes, or until opaque and no pink remains. Add shrimp to a heat-proof bowl and repeat with remaining shrimp.

If serving immediately, serve shrimp warm. If serving from the fridge/leftovers, I don’t recommend reheating and personally enjoy it cold. Either way, serve shrimp over baby spinach with roasted garlic vinaigrette and a handful of Daily Crunch almonds, roughly chopped (or other toppings of choice). Leftovers will keep tightly sealed in the fridge up to three days. I don’t recommend freezing.