Shrimp and Avocado Noodle Salad with Creamy Ginger Vinaigrette

Our road trip back yesterday from San Francisco was slightly longer than usual, but the beautiful route along the 101 was worth the extra 2 hour drive.  It’s not often that we get to see a mix of California’s gorgeous oak woodland interior and stunning rolling coastline, so the 10 hour drive was visually fabulous. If you ever get a chance to road trip our home state of California, please add Route Highway 1 PCH and 101 on your list. You will not be disappointed.

We spent the last 4 days in San Francisco for a video shoot with Blue Bottle Coffee along with a visit with family. It seems like we’ve been making this trip quite a bit this year, so for our drive home we wanted to mix things up to see more of our beloved state. Gosh, California is just so beautiful in Spring and we’re smitten with it beyond words.

some iPhone images from San Francisco

view of the city from Bay Bridge

cherries in season at the Castro Farmers Market 

The Richmond Bridge in the distance,  Marin County 

Along our drive home we talked about Sierra, the garden, our next travel work trip and what we were going to share on our next post. Then we remembered the avocado shrimp noodle salad! Oh yes, can’t forget that amazing avocado shrimp noodle salad. We had shared an image of this dish about 10 days ago on our Facebook page and wanted to make sure we were able to test the recipe a few more times before we posted.

For our last food photography & styling workshop, the kind folks at The California Avocado Commission were so generous and sent us some avocados to photograph and style with. And with the leftovers, we were able to have a feast of avocados to eat for our Cinco De Mayo party!

Even after the workshop, we had a few gorgeous avocados left over and decided to use those for lunch in our noodle salad. So here it is, one of our favorite lunches to feast on. It’s a fresh and satisfying noodle salad with creamy avocado and grilled shrimp. The creamy ginger vinaigrette binds everything together so well and toss it up a bit to blend the avocado in with the noodles, you have yourself a winning noodle salad.

This noodle salad is wonderful when it’s cold and with all the amazing warm weather we’ve been having, consider it the perfect picnic dish. Hoping your weather is warming up and sunshine is filling your days!

hugs,

diane and todd

P.S. many of you have asked us about attending our food photography/styling workshops at our studio. We plan on adding two more dates this Summer and will be announcing them soon. In the meantime, you can sign up on the waiting list and get a pre-notification of dates before we officially announce. Sign up for waiting list here at Eventbrite. 

Yield: 2 Servings

Total Time: 10 min

6-8 oz dried Asian Noodles *See Note 1Creamy Ginger Dressing *recipe follows1/2 lb Shrimp, shelled & deveined1 Avocado, dicedGrape Seed or Canola OilSea Saltfresh cracked Black PepperCilantro, Thai Basil, or other herb of choice for garnish, chopped or torn1/4 cup of olive oil or grape seed oil (we prefer grape seed oil because it's lighter and neutral tasting for this dressing)1 teaspoons of sesame seed oil2 heaping teaspoons of minced ginger (about a 1" knob)1 teaspoon of mayo1 tablespoons rice vinegar3 teaspoons of soy sauce1/2 teaspoon sugar2 teaspoons of lime or lemon juice1 teaspoon of minced cilantro, extra sprigs for garnishCook noodles to package directions then rinse and cool under cold water.Make the dressing: Combine all ingredients together well. Set aside.Heat a medium saute pan over medium-high heat.Lightly oil pan and cook shrimp about 30 seconds on each side or until cooked through. Season with salt and pepper.Starting with 2/3 the amount of dressing, toss noodles, shrimp, avocados, and dressing together. Taste for seasoning preference and add more dressing if necessary.Garnish with fresh herbs and serve.

Note 1: Usually we'll use a rice noodle such as the Vietnamese bun or pho noodle or a quality ramen or somen noodle. Use whichever type of noodles you prefer most.

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