Delicious Shrimp Pasta Salad With Ginger Essence

Ingredients:

½ tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
¾ pound medium shell shrimps
4 ounce penne pasta
1 clove garlic, minced
¾ cup red or yellow baby tomatoes or grape tomatoes, halved
½ stalk celery
½ cup red bell peppers
1/8 cup red onions, chopped
1/8 cup olive oil, preferably extra virgin
1/8 cup sherry vinegar
1/8 cup fresh basil
½ tablespoon capers
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Ginger Pasta Cooking Method

1. If you are using frozen shrimps make sure to thaw them thoroughly before proceeding further. Peel their shells in such a way that their tails remain intact. Devein them and rinse well. Pat them dry with the help of paper towels and leave aside.
2. Heat the olive oil in a medium size skillet. Add the ginger and garlic to the hot oil and cook over medium heat for a few seconds. Add the shrimps and cook them for about 3 minutes or until they turn opaque. Gently stir the shrimps every 20 seconds or so. Set them aside to cool.
3. Cook the penne style pasta according to the manufacturer’s directions on the package. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it thoroughly and rinse it under cold running water to prevent further cooking. This will also ensure that the pasta remains separated and does not lump together.
4. Whisk the 1/8 cup of olive oil along with the sherry vinegar in a large bowl. To this dressing, add the cooked shrimps and pasta. Toss lightly to coat and then add the celery, sweet peppers, red onion, capers, tomatoes and basil to the bowl and toss again to mix well.
5. Season the mixture with freshly ground black pepper. Cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator to chill for at least 2 hours and not more than 24 hours.
6. Remove the bowl from the refrigerator just before serving and place the ginger shrimp pasta salad chilled on a serving plate or in four separate salad bowls. This recipe makes 4 servings.

Health Tips:

• Ginger shrimp pasta salad is a diabetes friendly recipe that provides 267 calories, 10 gm total fat, 17 gm proteins and 26 gm carbohydrate per serving
• To decrease the amount of fat in this recipe, skip the 1/8 cup olive oil which is used for the dressing. This will also decrease the total calories of the recipe
• This recipe provides 97 mg cholesterol per serving. The Cholesterol content in shell fish is comparatively higher than other fish. So if you are on a cholesterol-restricted diet and plan to include this recipe in your meals, balance your intake of other cholesterol rich foods accordingly. You can also substitute shrimps with other fish like salmon to decrease the cholesterol value of this recipe.