Blackened Shrimp Lettuce Cups

This one screams summertime to me! No oven or stove required so the house doesn’t get heated… just grab a beer (or two- you do you!) and head outside to the grill! All the colors with mango salsa, bright green lettuce cups and the blackened shrimp… gorgeous and delicious.

Oh- and its 5 ingredients!!

If grilling shrimp is a bit intimidating for you (as in- you are worried you’ll drop half of them between the grates) you can easily do this in a pan on the stovetop.

The recipe below is for 4 servings but it can easily be doubled or halved if you need more or less. Do what works for you.

The salsa can be made in advance to make a quick meal come together even quicker! Just pop the salsa in an airtight container and throw it in the fridge until you’re ready for it.

I love using my Homemade Spice Rub for this. To be honest… I pretty much use it for everything! It gives such great flavor without overpowering other flavors in each dish. Plus, the little bit of brown sugar will caramelize and help with the blackening on that shrimp. But, use whatever blackening season you’d like (just adjust as you need depending on how flavorful and spicy your seasoning is)!

It’s a versatile recipe… it’s basically what I try to do with all of my recipes… the shrimp can be swapped out for chicken or even a flank steak! You can use whatever type of lettuce you prefer or even serve these with a little rice if you want. I’m using my Mango Salsa here, but you can change it out for any type of salsa you’d like. A taco seasoning on the shrimp topped with traditional salsa would be a nice option. Flank steak lettuce cups with a chimichurri type salsa would be heavenly! Maybe I need to do some recipe developing for that 😉

What tasty combinations will you try?

Blackened Shrimp Lettuce Cups

By Lindsay Gosselin Serves: 4 Prep Time: 8 minutes Cooking Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 lb raw shrimp, peeled and deveined*
• 2 tbsp canola or peanut oil**
• 3 tbsp Homemade Spice Rub or blackening season of choice
• 1 head Butter lettuce
• 1 c Mango Salsa or salsa of choice
• 1 avocado, sliced (optional but who would want to skip this?)

Instructions

1

Turn the grill on high to preheat.

2

In a medium bowl, toss the shrimp and oil with the blackening seasoning. Set aside.

3

Separate the lettuce leaves from the stem and set them on a large serving tray. I like to do two leaves per ‘cup’.

4

When the grill is super hot, about 400-450 degrees, set the seasoned and oiled shrimp on the grill in a single layer. Close the grill and cook on high 3-4 minutes, flip, and cook another 3 (cooking times will vary depending on the shrimp size). Grill until pink and opaque.

5

Place the blackened shrimp on the prepared lettuce cups (it’s ¼ c per person), top with a couple spoonfuls of your salsa of choice and serve immediately.

Notes

*I know that you’re supposed to leave the shrimp tails on for the pretty factor but I usually just take them off when I’m cleaning the shrimp so my family can dig right in. Feel free to leave them on in your house! **Just pick whatever oil you have around that has a high smoke point since the shrimp will cook on very high heat.