I am a sucker for shellfish. When I was a little girl, growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was introduced to some of the best seafood anywhere (well all types of food, really). We were exposed to so many fantastic ethnic foods as well, and I think I was pretty lucky to grow up in an area with so many delicious food choices. There was one seafood restaurant though, that was my favorite. Spenger’s Seafood Grotto, in in Berkeley, California. They made the best seafood – more specifically the best Shrimp Louie Salads on the west coast! That is what inspired me to create my own salad – the West Coast Shrimp Louie Salad.

I posted the recipe for the Shrimp Louie Salad Dressing in another blog post. Below you will find the the remaining ingredients for the Shrimp Louie Salad, as well as the assembly directions.

West Coast Shrimp Louie Salad

Below is my West Coast Shrimp Louie Salad recipe, complete with homemade Louie dressing/sauce!

Ingredients:

Head of ice burg lettuce, rinsed, patted dried and torn to bite size pieces
4-6 hardboiled eggs, peeled and sliced
1 cucumber sliced
1 cup baby carrots, chopped
4 Green onions sliced
2 cups bay shrimp, washed and checked for little shells
Home made croutons
Home made Louie dressing

You’ll want to use big bowls for this salad, as these are meant to be served as the main course. So fill ’em up to the brim!

Directions:

In each large bowl, fill about 3/4 full with lettuce. Place slices of cucumber around the edge of the bowl. Do the same with the hardboiled egg slices. Add the chopped carrots inside the cucumber ring, then add homemade crispy chewy croutons (or regular croutons if you don’t have time to make my homemade crouton recipe). Add bay shrimp on top, then pour on the Louie dressing. Sprinkle with green onions. Stand back and admire your beautiful creation!

Serve with french bread or garlic bread if desired.

A lot of people make Louie Salads with Thousand Island salad dressing, but it doesn’t taste quite the same as this recipe does. It is a little overpowering. You definitely don’t want to cover up the flavor the the sweet little shrimp!