Shrimp Avocado Salad that comes together in 15 minutes. Bring to a potluck or enjoy for lunch, this salad is easy to make either way as it requires no cooking. Perfect summer dish.
Avocado makes any salad better! From simple avocado salad to corn avocado salad, this fruit is perfect for making salads!
Shrimp and Avocado Salad
This shrimp and avocado salad is perfect for summer or really year round side dish worthy. Think Easter and Holidays! It is cold and requires no cooking.
Shrimp avocado salad recipe takes only 15 minutes to make. Everything you need on a hot summer night. We ate ours over a course of 2 days, from taking to the beach to putting together a quick lunch.
Ingredients
- Cooked shrimp
- Avocado
- Tomatoes
- Bell pepper
- Cilantro
- Plain yogurt
- Simple spices
This shrimp and avocado salad is so versatile. Perfect for cleaning out the veggie drawers. Use what you have. Honestly.
How to Pick Ripe Avocados
First thing I want to share, if you care about buying organic vs. conventional produce, avocado is not where you should be spending your money. Because of its thick skin and because only 1% of avocados are actually sprayed, you can buy regular avocados and not organic. Avocado is #1 on Clean 15 list.
Choose avocado fruit that is dark green and a bit soft to the touch. Soft avocados with brown skin are over ripen. Which means they are mushy and have black spots inside.
You can also remove the brown nub of the stem. If it comes off easily and flesh is green underneath, your avocado is ripe.
How to Cook Shrimp
The best feature of this easy salad is that you don’t have to cook anything. Not even shrimp. But sometimes you have leftovers or not a bag of cooked shrimp, so there are a few options.
- Buy cooked shrimp – You can buy large size or tiny one cooked, peeled and deveined shrimp. Obviously large one will cost more, so will the wild (local) one. I personally think it is best to buy wild because it has not been contained in enclosed environment, fed antibiotics and etc. somewhere in Asia.
- Grilled shrimp – You can use leftovers of this recipe or if you happen to have a bag of raw and not cooked shrimp on hand.
- Sauteed shrimp – Here is how I like to cook shrimp in a pan. Just like I did for shrimp tacos. Saute in a hot pan in a bit of avocado oil seasoned with salt and pepper. That’s all you need but you can make shrimp spicy with chili powder or taco seasoning.
What’s the Dressing?
In this tasty salad, veggies and shrimp are dressed in scrumptious creamy and zesty yogurt dressing. This cold healthy shrimp salad is creamy without mayo. Regular or Greek yogurt do the job.
I kissed goodbye to mayo drenched salads long time ago. I don’t mind a few tablespoons of avocado mayo in healthy egg salad or healthy potato salad once in a while though.
Healthy Serving Ideas
Here is how our family likes to eat shrimp avocado salad.
- Put over a tostada. You can even make your own healthy tostadas.
- With quinoa or brown rice for those hungry boys and husbands.
- Over a bed of fresh crispy lettuce like Romaine, spinach or zesty arugula.
- With tortilla chips as an appetizer.
- Add 2 cups of cooked pasta to the salad. Or 1 cup quinoa.
Make Ahead?
Definitely. Just leave out avocado and cilantro. Pour dressing on a side but do not stir. Or refrigerate dressing in a separate container. Bring it with you if you are travelling with the salad. Dress right there.
Another option is to make dressing right before serving.
In either case, you can make this shrimp and avocado salad up to 2 days in advance.
Does It Go Bad?
Surprisingly enough, this yummy make ahead salad is also good for leftovers. Even all dressed, it keeps its shape pretty well for up to 2 days. Avocado may turn a bit brown but nothing catastrophic.
More Summer Salad Recipes to Try:
PrintShrimp Avocado Salad
Shrimp Avocado Salad is creamy, easy and healthy. It is a 15 minute summer must have!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 7 servings 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: No Cook
- Cuisine: American Ukrainian
Ingredients
Yogurt Dressing:
- 3/4 cup regular or Greek plain yogurt, 2+% fat
- 2 tsp any light colour vinegar
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper, to taste
Shrimp Avocado Salad:
- 1 lb cooked frozen shrimp, thawed & drained
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, cut in halves
- 2 large bell peppers, chopped
- 3 medium avocados, chopped
- 1 (1 lb) long English cucumber, chopped
- 1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
Instructions
- In a small bowl, add yogurt, vinegar, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Whisk with a fork and set aside.
- Chop vegetables and add them to a large salad bowl.
- Pour dressing on top and mix gently to combine. Serve chilled.
Store: Refrigerate covered for up to 2 days (dressed is OK).
Make Ahead: Just leave out avocado and cilantro. Pour dressing on a side but do not stir. Or refrigerate dressing in a separate container. Bring it with you if you are travelling with the salad. Dress right there.
Another option is to make dressing right before serving.
In either case, you can make this shrimp and avocado salad up to 2 days in advance.
Notes
If using thick Greek yogurt, thin it out with a few tbsp of water.
Smaller size shrimp is great for this salad as it’s cheaper. If using large shrimp, cut in half.
Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating in the comments.
Absolutely delicious! I made this in half batches 3 times. Everyone I shared this with thought it was a definite keeper. Love all the fresh veggies and to be honest, you had me at avocado!!
★★★★★
Yay. So happy to hear and thanks so much for sharing!!!
This recipe is definitely a keeper for my “Favorite Recipes” notebook for sure!! I was skeptical while prepping everything because of the simplicity of it and wondering if my husband would approve of such a simple salad for dinner, but we were both very impressed by the flavors! Everything works so well together – shout out to the fresh cilantro and the dressing – the dressing (so yummy)!!! I did season my shrimp with my husband’s homegrown / dehydrated / ground hot chili pepper powder and warmed them in a pan with a little EVOO before topping the salad with them. The depth of the flavors, the crispy-crunch of the fresh veggies, the fresh-from-the-garden tastes – they all marry so well together to make this a perfect meal. I love your recipes, I haven’t tried one yet that I didn’t love, and this one is definitely one of my favorites!
★★★★★
I will take your comment and add it to the description of the recipe. So good haha. Glad you all enjoyed and thank you so much for your kind words.
Yum Yum Yum!
★★★★★
Delicious flavours!
★★★★★
Don’t know who developed your site, but it’s very good! Very clean and easy to read with good photography. I also love the print function for your recipes! It works better than any other I’ve ever come across so far–much better than the one found on AllRecipes.com. Beautiful color photo, clean space, crisp, and nice to look at and read! Very good. Thanks!
Thank you! My husband did, I will pass on your compliments. We are working on redesign this year to make it even more user friendly.:)
just made this salad for the first time today and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Prepared a Greek theme meal and it fit perfectly. I will make again on any evening
I made this recipe today used fresh squeezed lemon juice instead of the vinegar and added some mint leaves Fantastic Recipe Thank You!! 🙂
You are welcome, Ed. Great subs. Whatever you have on hand works. I mean whatever makes sense.:)
Found this one on Pinterest. Clicked through to your site to let you know my family thought this was awesome as did I. A lot of chopping, but no cooking! And the dressing was so light, which my mother-in-law gave her approval on 😉
Thank you for letting me know and Yay! My mother in law lives very far away but I understand what you mean. Mine says hemp products make her blood pressure go up. So I get it lol.
This salad is absolutely gorgeous, Olena! I’m pinning it right now to make this week! Lovely photos, too!
Thank you very much, Caroline! I should find local sustainable shrimp and make it again too.
I just made to take to a potluck lunch. It is so good. Love that dressing.
How is this when made a day ahead?
Absolutely fine. There might be some juices at the bottom which you can drain. I keep this salad in a fridge for a few days.
Oh my, this salad was divine. The dressing I think I could just eat with a spoon – and the best is I could if I wanted without any guilt! This may be my new go to in a pinch dinner. Thank you!!
Fantastic recipe and great read!
Oooh! This looks really tasty! I think I’ll need to try this recipe out before I change my diet to a plant-based diet. I’m pescetarian right now but am transitioning slowly… 🙂
Oh my, you are brave! I recently came to a conclusion I could never be a vegetarian, not to mention vegan. Although I have vegetarian days.
This looks divine! Perfect healthy salad recipe!
You made me lol, Olena. I don’t do camping either and thankfully neither does my husband! Beautiful salad. Pinned!
Camping is fun. I guess in small amount and at different stages of life. NOT with 2 little kids on a regular basis. And no cleaning the trailer. I had a dream last night – all of us in a truck, pulling trailer, kids in the back with pillows and me holding a box of spinach. Living a dream LOL.
Have you actually made the salad and tried it? Or do you just post non-sequotor comments on all the recipes? If you have tried it, how do you like it….please let the readers know, thank you! C
Char, I created this recipe and if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t have posted it. Enjoy!
I am so making this for lunch tomorrow. Looks delish! Thanks for sharing.
I’m coming over then.:) You will have a great lunch, enjoy! And leftovers keep well for a day or two even with a dressing.
I hate gravel in my bed and dirty feet. But we found a camp ground that looks better than 3 star hotel, actually enjoyed camping for the first time last year 🙂
I’ll go to that campground, once a year, with my tent, for 1 night, but no trailer in my life anymore! The problem was the freaking trailer, not the campground. 😀 We camped 6 times last year. I thought I would die from packing and cleaning. Trailer is just not my thing, I guess.
It’s been a long time since we’ve had shrimp but now I want to get some and make your salad. It looks so good.
Hey, Norma. Long time no see.:) We don’t eat shrimp often either. I guess the price and my husband is scared of cholesterol.:)