A Heart’s Salad for Valentine’s Day

Reluctantly, I squelched the notion of making a salad with chicken hearts for the occasion.  I mean, I’d be overjoyed to eat such a dish, but others, perhaps not so much…

Instead, here’s a great Valentine’s Day salad using shrimp (they’re red, or at least reddiish), radish (ditto), artichoke hearts and hearts of palm, on a bed of lettuce.  Feel free to sub in grape tomatoes for the radish – I didn’t have any grape tomatoes, and I was only just about able to get around some on my own when I made this recipe.  (Recovering from knee surgery.)

Hearts are a lovely moment!

And for those of you who will eat fish but not other forms of meat on Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent  (which falls on the same day as Valentine’s Day this year), this recipe may be for you to consider.

The recipe is Paleo.  Just vet out your salad dressing…

Why 18 shrimp:  This results in 9 per plate, and in numerology, 9 is considered the number of completion.  You can of course ignore this and use as many shrimp as you like.

Full salad (prior to dressing)

Prep Time:  15 minutes.
Cook Time: 5 minutes for getting the water to boil (if that), 1.5 minutes max for the shrimp.
Rest Time:  It’s a salad.  Just make sure the shrimp are chilled…
Serves:  2 on Valentine’s Day 🙂

Valentine’s Day Heart’s Salad

• A bed of mixed greens for each plate
• About 10 inches or so of hearts of palm, sliced into 1/4 – 1/2 inch disks.
• 3 ounces of artichoke hearts
• 4 radishes, cleaned and cut in slices.  OR, add to this, or replace with, about 10 grape tomatoes, cut in half.
• 18 shrimp, cooked, peeled and de-veined.  Choose shrimp with a decided curl to them, if possible.  After cooking, allow to cool.  (You can cook them a day in advance, but just refrigerate.)
• Salad dressing of your choice.  Either a homemade vinaigrette, or something with minimal “garbage” ingredients.  It is, after all, a special occasion! I chose Annie’s Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Lay out the bed of lettuce on each plate, and then add the other salad ingredients however you wish… although for a nice appeal, pair up the shrimp in each corner of your plate (of course, round plates are fine!) into the shape of hearts.  (Hence, the request to find the curliest shrimp and use those…)  This uses 8 of the 9 shrimp per serving, simply slice the last one lengthwise and put it towards the center of the plate.

Drizzle with salad dressing, and enjoy with your partner!  I found this to be of sufficient size to be great as a lunch, no other food item necessary, although a light bowl of soup would not be amiss.

For dinner?  Serve aside a main that is something both of you adore!  (And, seriously, do you really want to go out to eat on Valentine’s Day, one of the most stressful, restaurant-wise, dates of the year?  Save that for a date that restaurants don’t get overwhelmed.)

Have a Happy V-Day!

This recipe is being shared at Fiesta Friday, where your hosts are Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook, and Laurena @ Life Diet Health.  Enjoy!