You Forgot the Shrimps!

Though I really love Puerto Rican food, I had my fill a few days into my trip. By our third day, I was craving a salad like a diabetic craves cake. Since coming home, I have definitely had the urge to eat lighter. Not only to lose the Puerto Rican food baby I developed while gone, but also because I likes light, summery dishes in warm weather!

I was dreaming of this salad on the airplane on the way home. When it came to me actually putting it together, I suddenly had this ridiculous need to add shrimp. Now, I don't really eat shrimp. I had one summer where we got a bad batch of shrimp and I haven't really liked it since. But this salad needed to have shrimp, damn it! Even if the shrimp is $15.99/lb! What?! I know!

But it was a nice addition to the dish.  

Zucchini-Bulgur Salad with Lemon-Mint Dressing


Ingredients
1 cup bulgur
1 medium zucchini
1/2 red onion, diced in 1/4 inch pieces
1/3 - 1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup feta
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 - 2 chopped garlic cloves
1/2 lb jumbo shrimp, shelled and cleaned

Dressing
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 handful fresh mint
1 tsp of your choice of sweetener
1 - 2 garlic cloves
1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil

Method
1. Boil 1 1/2 cups of water. Add 1 cup of bulgur, turn off heat, and leave covered for 30 minutes.
2. Dress the shrimp with salt, pepper, chopped garlic cloves, and olive oil. Heat a small pan and cook shrimp until they turn pink and curl in a tight "C", only a few minutes.
3. Chop zucchini in 1/4 dice as well as the red onion while shrimp cools.
4. Add zucchini, red onions, and walnuts to cooked bulgur.
5. Grate the zest of the lemon directly into the salad, careful not to get the white pith which is bitter.
6. Add all the ingredients on the dressing list and blend until combined, leaving mints into small flecks.
7. Add shrimp and dress salad with lemon-mint dressing. Then, add the feta as the last ingredient.