Fish Taco Salad with Shrimp & Avocado Salsa

I find Mexican food comforting in these trying times. It’s not so much the days are hard to get through, but any time I feel super stressed out or have had a bad day–Mexican food is there to cure my blues.

Usually I would dive head first into a pile of salt tortilla chips and queso, but desperate times call for desparate measures. Tortilla chips are out of the question, as are tortillas in general. I could still siphon a whole bowl of queso down my throat if I wanted to, but I feel like that would be too taboo.

Playing off the taco salad vibe I was feeling last week, I set down to figure out how I could do it without tortilla chips. I found some sweet potato ribbons at Trader Joe’s and the lightbulb went off. Chili powder sweet potato chips! Of course, this was before I knew you couldn’t really eat sweet potatoes on the keto diet, but a few slivers can’t hurt.

I drenched those ribbons in olive oil, chipotle & ancho chile powders, salt and pepper. Toasted light for a few minutes (I may have burned a few) and then threw them on top of my makeshift taco salad. Looking back, I would have rather used a regular lettuce like romaine or iceberg instead of cabbage for this salad. There was a lot of spicy and acidic flavors here, and the slightly bitter bite didn’t go well with everything else. Of course, it still tasted good, but would have been even better with lettuce instead.

Let me tell you about this salsa I made, though. Ooooh, girl. That stuff was tasty. I even snuck a few spoonfuls by itself! Who knew grilled shrimp and avocado paired so well with tomatoes, onions and cilantro? Delightful.

I just grilled my fish in the grill pan with some chile powder & cumin covering it. I also served this taco salad with a cilantro-lime crema that is super easy to make, and gives regular sour cream a kick in the butt.

Step-By-Step Instructions

Make the sweet potato chips: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss sweet potato ribbons with olive oil and spices. Lay out flat on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes until toasted and browned.

Make the cilantro-lime crema: In a small resealable bowl (tupperware!) stir together sour cream, lime juice, and cilantro. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Make the salsa: In a large bowl, toss together avocaod, onion, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper. Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium heat. In a small bowl, toss shrimp in chili powder, garlic powder an cumin. Cook shrimp in oil for 4-5 minutes or until pink.

Let cool and then chop into pieces. Toss in with avocado mixture and give it a good stir.

Meanwhile, heat avocado oil in a grill pan over medium high heat. Coat fish on both sides with spices. Grill, about 2-3 minutes per side, until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Make the salad: start with cabbage/lettuce, add a filet, a dollop of cilantro-lime crema, shrimp & avocado salsa, and top with sweet potato chips.