Easy Shrimp Salad

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One of my favorite summers meals is a cold shrimp salad. First you need to boil some fresh or frozen headless and deveined shrimp in the 20 - 30 count range. This means there will be about 20 - 30 shrimp per pound. I usually only need one pound to make this salad.

To cook the shrimp, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil and then toss the shrimp into the boiling water. Keep the heat on high. Wait until the water begins to boil again, then shut off the burner heat and wait 5 minutes and the shrimp should be cooked. They should look pink if they are cooked. Drain off the hot water and start peeling the shells off the shrimp. This is the hard part of the preparation so you could just take the time to let the cooked shrimp sit and cool off in your ice box for a while. That way it is not as hard to peel them.

After peeling off all the shells, chop up the cooked shrimp into small bite sized pieces. Put all the sliced shrimp into a bowl and add a splash of lemon juice, two large spoonfuls of salad dressing and two small spoonfuls of sweet pickle relish. For a large spoon, use a serving spoon and for a small spoon use a normal sized table setting spoon, like you would eat with, not a soup spoon. Mix everything up in the bowl and then serve on lettuce. Salt and pepper is optional.

Also, it is recommended that crackers be served with the salad. Another way to serve the salad is on a toasted muffin with the lettuce on the bread. The lettuce will help keep the bread from getting wet from the salad and then falling apart. This is a great sandwich for having ready after chores, it keeps well for 4 hours or so. Make sure of safe food precautions, such as not leaving anything sitting out a long time, the food must be kept cold or it will spoil.