Perfect for summer, cold Shrimp and Avocado Salad with creamy yogurt dressing is ready in 15 minutes. Whether you bring it to a backyard BBQ or enjoy it for lunch, this creamy and refreshing salad is so easy to make with no cooking.
Avocado makes any salad better! From easy avocado salad to avocado corn salad, this fruit is perfect for making salads!
Table of contents
This shrimp avocado salad is perfect for summertime, holidays, and even Easter! It is served cold, requires no cooking, and is simple to make like.
The base of the salad are vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, bell pepper, avocado and tossed in creamy homemade yogurt dressing. This salad is made with store-bought cooked shrimps for easiness but can be made with raw shrimps, if preferred.
It would pair nicely with a summer soup like sun dried tomato soup or salmon soup.
Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Quick: You only need 15 minutes using store-bought cooked shrimp.
- Tasty: It’s light, refreshing, creamy and zesty.
- Healthy: Made with fresh healthy ingredients and loaded with fiber and protein. It is also quite low carb and gluten-free.
- No cook recipe: Keeps kitchen cool during hot summer days.
Ingredients You Will Need
This easy shrimp avocado salad recipe is so versatile. Perfect for cleaning out the veggie drawers, so use what you have! Honestly.
- Cooked shrimp: You will need one pound. I prefer smaller sized shrimp, so you can have the perfect bite of shrimp in your salad!
- Avocado: Choose avocado fruit that is dark green and a bit soft to the touch. Because of its thick skin and because only 1% of avocados are actually sprayed, you can buy regular avocados and not organic.
- Tomatoes: Grape or cherry tomatoes work best here.
- Bell pepper: Any color works, red bell pepper, yellow, or even orange. Green is less sweet.
- Cucumber: I use long English cucumbers as you do not need to peel them. Garden cucumbers with thicker skin may need to be peeled.
- Cilantro: I recommend to use only fresh.
- Plain yogurt: Greek or regular with 2% fat. Greek yogurt may need to be thinned out to reach correct consistency.
- White vinegar: Balances the dressing and adds a crispy tangy taste.
- Simple spices: Garlic powder, salt and pepper.
How to Make Shrimp and Avocado Salad
This dish is so simple to make!
Make dressing: In a small bowl, add yogurt, vinegar, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Whisk with a fork and set aside.
Chop vegetables: Chop vegetables and add to a large salad bowl along with cooked shrimp.
Combine: Pour dressing on top and mix gently to combine. Serve chilled.
Tips for Best Results
- Larger shrimp: Cut in half so you can get juicy shrimp in every salad bite.
- Not sure the best method to dice your avocado? Check out this detailed step by step with photos on how to cut an avocado.
- No vinegar? You could try lemon or lime juice.
- Greek yogurt: May need to be thinned out with milk if your dressing is too thick.
- Zesty: Add chopped red onion.
- Touch of mayo: Replace a few tablespoons of yogurt with mayo like I do in tuna egg salad and healthy potato salad.
What Should I Serve With This Salad?
Our family often swaps this shrimp salad for the chicken in chicken tostadas and then I serve it with a side of whole grains for hungry boys and husbands.
It also works well as an appetizer with tortilla chips, or we serve over a bed of fresh crispy lettuce like Romaine with air fryer hard boiled eggs for additional protein for dinner.
How To Store Leftovers?
Store: Place in a container then refrigerate covered for up to 2 days (dressed is OK). Do not freeze.
More FAQs
You can buy large sized or tiny sized shrimp that are already cooked, peeled and deveined. I personally love to buy wild because it has not been contained in enclosed environment or fed antibiotics.
Leftovers of grilled shrimp or air fryer shrimp could also be used, or use either of those methods to quickly cook your raw shrimp.
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.
Yes, just leave out avocado and cilantro. Pour dressing on a side but do not stir. Or refrigerate dressing in a separate container and dress right before serving.
More Shrimp Recipes to Try
- Healthy shrimp salad
- Shrimp tacos recipe with slaw
- Grilled shrimp skewers
- Instant Pot shrimp boil
- Shrimp tostadas
Shrimp and Avocado Salad
Equipment
- Sturdy cutting board
- Sharp chef's knife
Ingredients
Yogurt Dressing:
- 3/4 cup regular or Greek plain yogurt 2+% fat
- 2 tsp white or white wine 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
- 1 lb long English cucumber chopped
- 2 large bell peppers chopped
- 3 medium avocados 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.
- In a large salad bowl, add shrimps, tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, avocado and cilantro.
- Pour dressing on top and mix gently to combine. Serve chilled.
Notes
- 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 and add before serving.
- If using thick Greek yogurt, thin it out with a few tbsp of water.
- Smaller sized shrimp is great for this salad as it’s cheaper. If using large shrimp, cut in half.
Five stars. Bravo Olena. I developed a taste for avocado attending grad school in California. My mother always made avocado stuffed with shrimp as appetizers for New Year’s parties at my parents’ home.
Yum! So glad you enjoyed it!
Yay
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.