We could live off this Shrimp Avocado Salad. It tastes crazy good! It’s also really pretty served as a chopped salad. Put it on the table and watch everyone’s eyes light up. This shrimp salad has all of the best flavors of summer.
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This shrimp salad is loaded with avocado, cucumbers, tomatoes and corn all over a bed of bright romaine. It’s so fresh and extremely satisfying with a light and easy cilantro dressing. Trust me; your first thought won’t be, “oh this is such a healthy salad.”
You’ll just sit there chewing with a big goofy grin on your face and run for a refill before you’ve even finished your bowl.
Note: Freshly boiled corn or grilled corn makes all the difference in this salad. Use canned in winter but fresh is best and adds a sweet burst of flavor. If you aren’t into shrimp, this salad is still amazing served vegetarian.
Ingredients for Shrimp Avocado Salad:
1/2 lb (3 to 4 medium) Roma tomatoes, chopped
1/2 English cucumber or 3 smaller garden cucumbers, sliced
1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
2 avocados, peeled, pitted and sliced
1 cup corn kernels (from 2 fresh cobs or canned drained corn)
1 medium romaine lettuce (5 to 6 cups chopped)
For the Cajun Shrimp:
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 lb large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tsp cajun spice
2 cloves garlic, pressed
Pinch of salt
For the Zesty Cilantro Lemon Dressing:
3 Tbsp olive oil (mild or extra virgin)
Juice of 1 large lemon (about 3 Tbsp) (it’s ok to sub lime juice)
1/2 bunch cilantro, (1/2 cup chopped)
1 tsp sea salt or 3/4 tsp table salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
How to Make Shrimp Avocado Salad:
1. Place shrimp in a medium bowl, sprinkle with 1 tsp cajun spice, 2 pressed garlic cloves and a pinch of salt. Stir to combine.
2. Heat a large non-stick pan over medium high heat. Swirl in 2 Tbsp butter. Once butter stops sizzling, add shrimp in a single layer and sauté about 2 minutes without disturbing. Flip shrimp over and sauté another minute or just until fully cooked through. Don’t overcook shrimp or they can become rubbery. Remove to a plate and set aside to cool.
3. Chop, rinse and spin dry your romaine lettuce. Line the bottom of a large salad platter/bowl with 5 to 6 cups of chopped romaine lettuce. Add remaining ingredients in rows over the top of your romaine: chopped tomatoes, sliced red onion, sliced cucumber, cajun shrimp, avocado and boiled or grilled corn.
Yum Yum! Everything about this shrimp salad is good!
4. To make the dressing, in a small bowl, whisk together 3 Tbsp olive oil, 3 Tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, 1 tsp sea salt and 1/8 tsp black pepper.
Drizzle dressing over the shrimp avocado salad then toss to combine and serve.
More Avocado Recipes to Fall in Love with:
If you enjoyed this salad, you must be an avocado fan (or shrimp or both!!), you will love these avocado recipes.
- Avocado Shrimp Salsa (major reader and personal favorite!)
- Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad (a classic improved with avocado)
- Avocado Chicken Salad (currently our #1 recipe)
Shrimp Avocado Salad Recipe
Ingredients
For the Chopped Salad:
- 1/2 lb 3 to 4 medium Roma tomatoes, chopped
- 1/2 English cucumber or 3 smaller garden cucumbers, sliced
- 1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 avocados, peeled, pitted and sliced
- 1 cup corn kernels, from 2 fresh cobs or canned drained corn
- 1 medium romaine lettuce, 5 to 6 cups chopped
For the Cajun Shrimp:
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 lb large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 tsp cajun spice
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed
- Pinch salt
For the Zesty Cilantro Lemon Dressing:
- 3 Tbsp olive oil, mild or extra virgin
- Juice of 1 large lemon, about 3 Tbsp (it's ok to sub lime juice)
- 1/2 bunch cilantro, (1/2 cup chopped)
- 1 tsp sea salt or 3/4 tsp table salt
- 1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Place shrimp medium bowl, sprinkle with 1 tsp cajun spice, 2 pressed garlic cloves and a pinch of salt and stir to combine.
- Heat large non-stick pan over medium high heat. Swirl in 2 Tbsp butter. Once butter stops sizzling, add shrimp in a single layer and sauté about 2 min without disturbing. Flip shrimp over and sauté another minute or just until cooked through. Don't overcook shrimp or they can become rubbery. Remove to a plate and set aside to cool.
- Chop, rinse and spin dry romaine lettuce. Line the bottom of a large salad platter/bowl with 5 to 6 cups of chopped romaine lettuce. Add remaining salad ingredients and shrimp in rows on top of romaine.
- To make the dressing, in a small bowl, whisk together dressing ingredients. Drizzle dressing over the salad then toss to combine and serve.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
We are completely and utterly in love with this salad. Try it and you’ll make it again and again! 😉
Q: What’s your favorite summer time salad?
Hi Natasha,
I love your recipes. Thank you for sharing..
I’m so glad you’re enjoyed our recipes Zeenia!
This recipe is so delicious! I’ve made it twice now and even my meat and potatoes boyfriend loves it.
The next morning I took all the leftovers (shrimp, corn, tomatoes, onion, cilantro) and made scrambled eggs with them. So double win! Thank you.
I’m so glad you enjoyed that Jen! Thank you so much for that feedback!
This is SOOOO AMazing!! I love it. Now I make this for lunch at work!! My family loves it. It’s fast and easy to make.
That’s just awesome, Joy! Thank you for that amazing feedback!
Hi, Natasha! I love your recipes. I’m preparing this salad right now to take to work the next couple days. Have you added the avocados to the dressing? Trying to still use them but don’t want them to brown since I’m neal prepping with limited lunch time the next couple days. I need to be able to take the salad out and dump the dressing and eat it! Thoughts?
Hi Sara, to prevent them from getting brown I like to keep them in an airtight container and by spraying this with a little lemon juice. That seems to do the trick.
These salads look amazing. I do not like lemon juice. What could I use as a dressing instead of the lemon?
Hi Mary, you could try your favorite Italian dressing instead. Also, I think an avocado ranch or a jalapeno ranch would taste great here.
I went ahead and used the lemon juice and it was amazing! Even my husband liked it! Thank u
You’re welcome, Mary!
Yum, yum salad! Didn’t have Cajun spices so made my own with some subs. Did the job
Salad takes a lot of prep time.
Suggest doing all veggies first then some wine. Then shrimp then some wine. Then the salad dressing. Then some wine. Then have fun assembling !!!
Serve crispy Italian bread!
Thank you so much for sharing that with us Barbara! I’m happy you enjoyed this recipe!
A honey+lime+cilantro dressing would be sublime. (no pun intended)
OMG! This salad is absolutely delicious! The men in my family loved it! The only thing I did different was using kale and I used a store bought dressing, Poppyseed. I ate it for lunch, made wraps for dinner, and then ate it again in the morning for breakfast!!!
That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Diane!
Natasha can I use caned corn in this recipe? Thank you!💕
Hi Lena, Yes! You sure can! Per the recipe, you can use “1 cup corn kernels from 2 fresh cobs or canned drained corn” I hope that helps!
what can i use in place of the cilantro,thanks.
Hi Gail, you could use finely chopped parsley or even dill
Wonderful salad. The only change we made was to double the dressing. Avocados made the salad very creamy. We loved it!
Thank you for that wonderful review, Howard!! I’m so happy you enjoyed that!
I love this salad ~ I am making it again for a group of girlfriends on our weekend trip to Estes Park. Question, what do you think would be good to serve with it? Bread? Crackers?
Thanks
I think it would be wonderful with chips! We serve along side dinner or eat it as is 🙂
Dear Natasha,
I had an invitation in my house and i tried the shrimp avocado salad , it was so delicious and almost gone noting that many dishes were on the table. The way of making the shrimp is tasty especially with the Cajun although i have searched a lot for finding it.
Thank you
You’re so welcome, Bassam! I’m happy you enjoyed that!
I forgot to add the onion and the corn and it was still a great salad. I grilled the shrimp. Yum….
Hi Kerry! I’m so happy you enjoyed that! Thank you for sharing your great review with us!
Just made this great salad… simple and quick. We left out the corn (we don’t eat corn if we can help it). Next time I’ll have to sub some hard boiled eggs like someone else said. Thanks for the recipe…
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Did salad for Fathers Day use kale/power greens instead for an outdoor festival. This week use chicken with baby kale. They barely let me finish adding all ingredients. Expensive but what’s $ when it come to Great taste? Skip spicy w/crowd.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
This salad is amazing! I wanted to make something different from my regular Feta Orzo shrimp salad, and I came across this page. I used all fresh, organic ingredients and the result was outstanding. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, I will make sure to try more recipes from your website 🙂
Thank you Andra for such a nice review and you are very welcome 😀
I don’t have cajun seasoning. What can I use instead?
Hi Tanya, cajun spice or paprika will work instead.
Simple ingredients great taste very easy to make. Loved it!
I’m glad you enjoy this simple but delicious recipe Irina, thanks for sharing!
Fabulous recipe! Thank youy.
My pleasure Melanie, I’m glad you enjoy it! 🙂
Love it! I would serve this to our pastor on Sunday!
I only added 2 boiled eggs to round it out.
And love, love that dressing. Going to make extra and keep it in a small jar in the fridge.
Thank you!
You’re welcome Darrell! I’m glad you love the recipe. Thanks for sharing your great review!
Where would you recommend buying the shrimp?? Any suggestions??
Hi Marina, if you can get your hands on wild caught (not farmed) shrimp, that is best. Otherwise, the peeled and deveined raw frozen bagged shrimp at Costco is the easiest to work with (very minimal prep required besides pulling the end tail off).
Thank you!
I made this salad for lunch today it was fantastic! Will make it again
I’m glad you enjoy the recipe Rosalie! Thanks for sharing your review!