The Lobster Roll which originated from the New England states contains chopped lobster and some fresh vegetables and herbs mixed in a light mayonnaise dressing and served on a hot dog bun. The Shrimp Roll in Lettuce Wrap recipe is a lighter and healthier version of the lobster roll and I substituted lobster with shrimp because it’s much more economical. Now of course, if you actually get your hands on lobster, you can definitely make the real lobster roll. Also, instead of a hot dog bun, I made the shrimp roll with lettuce so less carb.

Shrimp comes in all sizes and forms. It’s much more convenient to buy them frozen from the market than ‘fresh’ which isn’t really fresh but thawed from frozen form. Unless of course, you can actually find them alive – which they sell at Asian markets but then you actually have to peel and devein which is a lot of work (and they come with heads and tiny feet attached).

I usually buy two types of shrimp, and usually that’s from Costco. First, it’s the peeled and deveined raw shrimp. Second, it’s the large cooked shrimp. Unfortunately, the cooked shrimp still has the tail attached because it’s easier to serve them as cocktail shrimp. But it’s not a big hassle to just pull of the tail for this recipe. You can always go with the salad shrimp which has no tail but it’s too small for my taste. Even though we do end up cutting the shrimp into large chunks (2-3 pcs) but the texture is very different when compared to a small salad shrimp. For various shrimp salads, I always go with the cooked shrimp so I don’t need to deal with over cooking and also ice baths. Just way too much work when the cooked shrimp price is not that much more expensive.

Now, shrimp actually comes in many sizes as well and it’s labeled on the packaging with a set of numbers. Those numbers mean how many shrimp are in a pound. So obviously the smaller the number the bigger the shrimp. For this recipe, I would recommend large (31-35) and up. Now keep in mind, Costco doesn’t necessarily follow the common shrimp size packaging as they have a 31-40 size which falls between a large and a medium large. BTW, if you go to Walmart to get your shrimp, they also lump sizes together and tend to use a ‘larger’ than standard sizing chart which can be misleading because the consumer would assume they are getting a larger shrimp than they actually are.

Shrimp Size Chart:

Ingredients

• 1 lb cooked shrimp cut into large chunks (2-3)
• ½ cup celery finely chopped
• ¼ cup red onions finely chopped
• ⅛ cup green onions finely chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp coarse ground black pepper
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• lettuce for wrap**

**You can use any kind of lettuce as long as it has large leafy leaves that can be used as a wrapper. I like either the red leaf or green leaf lettuce but iceberg or romaine also works well.

Shrimp Roll in Lettuce Wrap

 

Author:

Mike Hsu

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: American

Serves: 4-6 servings

Prep time: 15 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Print

 

Can’t afford Lobsters for lobster roll? Try the shrimp roll in lettuce wrap instead, perfectly refreshing for all seasons.

Ingredients

• 1 lb cooked shrimp cut into large chunks (2-3)
• ½ cup celery finely chopped
• ¼ cup red onions finely chopped
• ⅛ cup green onions finely chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp coarse ground black pepper
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• lettuce for wrap

Instructions

1. Combine all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl
2. Gently mix all the ingredients together
3. Rest in refrigerator for about 15 minutes to chill and for flavors to impart
4. Place on a leafy lettuce, roll up and enjoy!

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