Summer Spinach Salad with Red Pepper Dressing

I recently noticed that while I’ve posted over 25 desserts, there’s only one lonely salad hanging out in my recipe index. Aww, poor salad. It’s funny because although I actually always enjoy digging into a lovely pile of greens at a restaurant, I’ve never quite gotten into the groove of making salads at home.  This is mostly because I’m usually too lazy to chop up all the different kinds of veggies needed to turn lettuce into a main course! But I couldn’t help but be inspired to get out my knife this week, after seeing all the fresh summer produce at the market.

We had the best sweet corn on the cob and it was just begging to be used in a salad, so I mixed the corn up with spinach, grape tomatoes, and shrimp, and made a lovely red pepper dressing that really complemented all the ingredients. I wanted to add some chopped avocado too, but they weren’t quite ripe enough. I’ve got to start making salads more often!

Summer Spinach Salad with Red Pepper Dressing
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 red pepper, chopped
2 medium shallots, chopped (1/4 cup)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 ounces baby spinach
2 cups cooked fresh sweet corn (from 2 ears of corn)
2 cups grape tomatoes
2 cups cooked shrimp

Directions:
To make the dressing, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat and sauté red pepper and shallots for 5 to 7 minutes or until softened; add garlic and sauté one additional minute. Place cooked veggies in a food processor with remaining 1/4 cup olive oil, tomato paste, red wine vinegar, and salt, and pulse for several minutes or until smooth.

Toss spinach leaves with red pepper dressing, sweet corn, grape tomatoes, and cooked shrimp in a large bowl until well combined. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition: 338 calories, 19.2g fat, 5.4g fiber, 20.6g protein per serving
Cost: $2.19 per serving