Shrimp & Kale Quinoa Bowl w/ Cilantro Lime Pesto

Healthy and tasty shrimp, kale and quinoa bowl with cilantro lime pesto for your weekend dinner.

The other day I wanted something healthy and delicious. I wanted to feel full yet not like a tree sloth who's about to pass out from the amount of carbs digested. My hubby and I love shrimp (especially this delicious recipe. yep. hello carbs!) I had shrimp in my freezer and knew that a fresh and flavor-packed dish without the guilt of heavy cream sauce was the way to go. I went on a quest to find the perfect shrimp + something recipe on Pinterest and quinoa popped up. But most of the recipes seemed either too dull or too simple without any added flavors. I'm not the one to chew on kale just because it's healthy. So I decided to dig through my fridge and come up with something original. This is not a recipe I found anywhere so I came up with the pesto sauce myself. At first, I thought to add walnuts but they had too strong of a flavor, so almonds were perfect. Hope you like it as much as I did (even hubby approved of it).

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb shrimp

1 red bell pepper

1 bunch of kale (washed and chopped into 1in pieces)

1 medium onion (diced small)

1 cup quinoa

paprika, salt, pepper

1 garlic clove

2 tbsp soy sauce 

3 tbsp grapeseed oil

Pesto:

1 small cilantro bunch

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1 ginger root (peeled)

juice of 1/2 lime

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tsp sugar

PROCESS:

Cook quinoa according to the package instructions and set aside. (I add more water that way it's not so dry)

Peel and drain the shrimp onto a paper towel, sprinkle with salt, pepper and paprika. Heat a skillet on medium heat with 2 tbsp of grapeseed oil and add shrimp. Saute the shrimp until pink on both sides and set aside. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil and the onions. Saute onions until translucent for about 3 minutes on medium heat then add peppers and kale. Reduce the heat to medium/low and cook the vegetables for about 15-20 minutes until everything is nice and tender (unless you like your veggies crunchy). 

Combine shrimp, quinoa and kale and pepper together along with 3 tbsp pesto and soy sauce. Place more pesto on top for added flavor, if desired. 

For Pesto: Place all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until a uniform mixture forms. Taste and add either more sugar or lime to taste. 

Enjoy!

Thank you for stopping by! 

Pin the recipe image into a Pinterest folder for later reference, or share it on Facebook to have it saved in your feed!

xo, Anna