Bring The Vacation To Your Dining Room

A lazy beachside vacation may not fit in your summer budget, but you still can dine as if you were on holiday. Acapulco-Style Shrimp Salad combines the delicious flavors of tropical Mexico including fresh, peeled shrimp, lime juice, and chili to give your taste buds a cool, lightly spiced getaway.

Just 3 percent of the calories in this fresh seafood and vegetable salad come from fat, so you don’t have to feel guilty about splurging. Each half-cup serving contains less than a gram of fat, but provides a nutritious balance of protein and carbohydrates.

A Mexican root vegetable called jicama (Hee-kah-mah) is the only exotic ingredient called for in this refreshing salad. Jicamas are about the size of a turnip or larger and have thin, brown, bumpy skin and snow-white, crunchy, sweet flesh. Their flavor is similar to that of a water chestnut or a mild radish.

Jicama contains a mere 50 calories per cup. It can be used raw in salads or cooked in soups or stir-fried dishes.

Acapulco-Style Shrimp Salad

2 cups water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon lime juice

8 ounces medium shrimp in the shell

2 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped (about 1 cup)

1 cup fresh jicama, peeled and shredded on a cheese grater

1 green onion, chopped

1 or more fresh serrano or jalapeno peppers, seeded, stemmed and very finely chopped (or liquid hot pepper sauce to taste)

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

4 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoons ketchup

1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable juice cocktail

In a shallow saucepan, combine the water, salt, sugar and 1 tablespoon of the lime juice. Bring to a boil. Add the shrimp and simmer 1 to 2 minutes, or until the shrimp are bright pink and the tails have curled. Drain the shrimp in a colander and immediately cover with fresh ice cubes. When the shrimp are cold, peel and discard shells, and reserve the meat.

Combine the shrimp, tomatoes, jicama, green onion, chopped pepper(s), cilantro, remaining lime juice, ketchup and vegetable juice cocktail. Stir to combine. Chill and allow salad to marinate at least 30 minutes before serving.

Yield: 5 (1/2-cup) servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 67 calories, 10 grams protein, 7 grams carbohydrate, 0.1 grams fat (3 percent fat calories), 88 milligrams cholesterol, 102 milligrams sodium.

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