As spring starts peeking its head through the winter and temperatures warm up, salads start to become the star at mealtimes. I have no complaints about this. As I work with patients to add more vegetables to their diet, salads are inevitably one of the most simple things to add. For health, a robust salad with plenty of vegetables and great toppings can provide a nutritionally impressive meal that tastes great. Nowadays bagged salads come with lettuce prewashed and you really can’t beat that for a fresh, convenient meal. The catch is always the dressing though. Loaded with sodium, and for some dressing loaded with preservatives, it can be a real challenge to not turn a healthy salad into a sodium bomb. So today, we wanted to explore a simple salad with a fantastic dressing that you can make at home. The dressing can go with other salads as well and would make a great marinde for chicken.
This salad makes a great light lunch or dinner. You can add chicken instead of shrimp. OR, even better, if you’re not on a significant potassium restriction consider some black beans or cannelini beans. Although beans are a higher phosphorus food, the phosphates in them are organic and not absorbed 100%. And since plant-based proteins are especially good with kidney disease, enjoying this fantastic salad with some plant based protein instead of meat can be a great choice. The original recipe (original here from The Dinner Mom) had some added salt which we didn’t include, but didn’t miss. We also added just a touch of garlic powder to round out the flavors.
Caribbean Lime Shrimp Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 6 cups broccoli slaw fresh bagged kind found in all produce sections...can also use a cabbage slaw or just plain green salad
- 1 cup pineapple tidbits fresh or canned
- 1 cup mandarin orange segments
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup cilantro chopped
- 1 bunch green onions sliced, ~6
- 1-2 cup mini shrimp black beans, chicken or other protein
Honey Lime Dressing
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/8 cup lime juice
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 2 tablespoons onion finely diced
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Mix all of salad together in large bowl.
- Whisk dressing together or blend in a food processor or blender.
- Pour the dressing over the salad. Garnish with small tortilla strips.
Nutrition
KidneyGrub Verdict:
We loved this! And, my 2 year old loved this…so that says something to be sure! We actually tried a davita dressing recipe first and didn’t like it (but here is the link if you don’t believe us and want to try Davita caribbean lime dressing). It was mayonnaise based, and quite honestly, the mayo-lime combination I found to be unappetizing. I would not have eaten it… So, since I believe that we searched again for something different and liked this recipe much more (see we try to post things that we actually like to eat!). This vinaigrette dressing had a much nicer blend of flavor. We found that we didn’t need the entire amount of dressing for the salad since it seemed to go pretty far with flavor taste and moisture. In the future, I may also try cutting the honey back just a little bit (maybe to 2 tbsp) since it was a sweet dressing.
Writing Credit: Jessianna Saville, MS, RDN, LD
Photo Credits: Rebecca Barksdale