Any of you Instagram followers will know that I had the pleasure of spending last week in Iowa with a bunch of stellar farmers and bloggers learning all about…CORN! Lots and lots and lots of corn! It was a fabulous experience (which I will be telling you about soon in another post!). But ever since then, I have been craving this salad I adore from one of my favorite local KC restaurants, Urban Table, that it sprinkled with the most delicious roasted corn. They call it the “Shrimp Buena Terra Salad”. I call it…one of my favorite salads EVER.
Seriously. I know that food bloggers are supposed to be all adventurous and everything, but this salad was the first dish I ever ordered there and I love it so much that I may have ordered it every time since. SO GOOD. So after a year, I finally decided I should try making it at home. And I must say, my little homemade rendition seemed to be pretty spot on!
I did add use an avocado, and swapped the sun-dried tomato pesto they used in their dressing for some classic basil pesto I had at home. (You can use whatever pesto you’d like!) But otherwise, the ingredients were the same simple combo I’ve come to know and love. The only bummer was that I totally forgot the cheese for the photographs and my meal, although the salad actually seemed to hold its own without it. At Urban Table, they also grill the shrimp to give them a little extra char. But since I live in a loft where grilling would be, um, “frowned upon”, I just cooked the shrimp in a skillet in some of the leftover bacon grease. Always a plus. :)
So for any of you KC-ers who also love this salad, or for those of you around the world wide webospherenet who need to be introduced, I give you my version — a delicious “Shrimp, Roasted Corn & Avocado Salad” that I hope you will love as much as I do. Thanks for the inspiration, Urban Table!
Shrimp, Avocado & Roasted Corn Salad
Ingredients
Salad Ingredients:
- 2 ears of sweet corn, shaved off the cob
- 3 strips of bacon, diced
- 1/2 lb. large shrimp, peeled with tails on or off
- 4 cups chopped Romaine lettuce
- 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and diced
- 1/3 cup grated Fontina cheese (optional)
- buttermilk pesto dressing (see below)
Buttermilk Pesto Dressing Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup mayo or Greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup pesto, homemade or storebought
- 1 small shallot, minced
- 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
- pinch of salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
To Make The Salad:
- Heat a skillet over high heat. Add the corn kernels and let them dry-roast for about 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until their edges begin to brown and caramelize. Transfer the corn to a plate to set aside.
- Reduce heat to medium-high. In the same skillet, add the bacon. Fry for about 6 minutes, stirring ocassionally, until crispy. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon, leaving the grease in the skillet.
- Add the shrimp and saute until cooked and pink, about 2 minutes per side (depending on the size of your shrimp). Remove shrimp and set aside. (You’re now done with your multi-tasking skillet!)
- Assemble your salads by tossing together the Romaine, corn, bacon, shrimp and avocado. Drizzle with dressing and serve.
To Make The Dressing:
- Whisk together all ingredients until blended. Season with salt and pepper.
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
Do you the nutritional count on this salad? I’d like to know the calories and fat content. Thanks so much!
Hi Nstasha! We’re sorry but we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!
Yummy!! The photo looks great! The one thing I would do with it is use a small mirror or white reltfceor to put a little bit more light on the tomato and zucchini in the foreground. Nice work!
Thank you Alex, that’s such a great tip, and we will definitely give that a try! :)
Suggestions for a buttermilk substitute please?
Hey Helen! Did you just mean a substitute if you don’t have buttermilk? If so, you can use 1/2 cup of milk, mix it with 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice (or white vinegar), and let it sit for about 10 minutes (it will curdle, like buttermilk). The acid gives it a similar taste as buttermilk. Hope that helped answer your question!
That looks yummy! I was looking for some new gluten-free recipes as one of my friend who is gluten-intolerant will come and visit me soon! I find it difficult sometimes…but I will try this, thank you! )
Oh my gosh! This salad was delish, my whole family enjoyed! Thank you for sharing, might need to check out urban table as well!
This salad is fantastic! Thank you so much!
I made this tonight and it was great! Thanks for the recipe. I used frozen cooked shrimp because I already had it. It made for a lot of liquid in the pan so I drained that out and added more bacon grease to pan-fry them in for a bit. My husband loved it too.
Hi, Ali! I’m a Lee’s Summit girl, but I’ve never heard of Urban Table. We don’t really get out much (apparently!), but this sounds like a place to check out when we do. I’m definitely going to pin this recipe and give it a try after trying it at Urban Table so that my palate will have some frame of reference. Thanks for the recipe and the dining tip!
Stay safe in this crazy KC weather!
I have made this salad and dressing several times now…DELICIOUS!!! It’s going in my ‘keeper’ file.
Totally making this tonight! Looks great!!
Jen
www.peaceofcupcakeblog.com