This light and lovely recipe for the classic Shrimp Louie salad pairs shrimp, fresh veggies and hardboiled eggs with a tangy dressing on the side!

Welcome to my newest shrimp salad crush, the good old classic Shrimp Louie salad. This one tends to show up on old-timey country club menus along with its cousins Cobb Salad and Salad Nicoise, and while I love most of how the old classic is made, I needed to put my own tweak on it.

I’m hoping that this is one that my seafood-averse sweet Southern daughter will go for, since she has cracked the seafood door open by actually eating shrimp now and then.

And speaking of all things Southern, North Carolina is pulling out all the stops to welcome us here. For instance, this was the view from the kids’ deck the other night.

And yes, those cute little porch lights will be moving with us once we move to the Carolina Dream House. Which now has a DRIVEWAY!

And garage doors!

I promise that one on the left isn’t leaning over – I’m not sure what my iPhone was trying to tell me.

The Southern husband has already pushed the buttons multiple times to make sure they go up and down. (They do.)

In other news, it turns out that North Carolina weather is good for my newly discovered wavy/curly/crazy hair.

If anyone has suggestions regarding what to do with my bangs, I’m listening. #curlynovice

Meanwhile, back at the Shrimp Louie salad…

What the heck is Shrimp Louie Salad, anyway?

According to my research, this salad originated in the early 1900s in San Francisco, and since that is the town where the Southern husband proposed to me, it already had a head start in terms of my love and affection. It is traditionally made with shrimp, lettuce, egg and tomato, and (here’s where it lost me) it’s liberally tossed with Thousand Island Dressing.

Now, I am not a fan of liberal salad dressing (see my recipe for Steak Caesar Salad for example) and Thousand Island reminds me of that thing our moms used to do when we were kids – mixing ketchup and mayo together as a dip.

However, I did want to come up with a solution that gave a nod to the traditional dressing without glooping it all over the light and lovely shrimp and veggies.

So I did my favorite salad trick, which is to put it in a little cup on the side of the dish, so you can either dip your fork into it before you spear up a shrimp, or you can lightly drizzle your own amount on.

AND, since I was already messing with a classic, I added a little chili sauce in place of the ketchup, and some Worcestershire to give it a little oomph. I did use mayo, because you need it for the creaminess, although next time I might throw caution to the wind and swap out the mayo for sour cream. But I am being classic here. :)

Here’s how you make (almost) classic Shrimp Louie Salad!

Start by making that dressing, which is as easy as combining all the dressing ingredients and letting them sit while you prepare the rest of the salad.

Next, cook up the shrimp in a pot of water season with Old Bay until the shrimp are just done, about 3 minutes. Scoop them out and put them in a mixing bowl filled with ice water so they stop cooking – this will keep them nice and tender, and also cool them off a little for your pretty salad!

Now arrange the lettuce on two plates and divide up the shrimp and eggs – I also added some cherry tomatoes and cucumber, which is also not super traditional but IS super colorful and scrumptious.

As for that dressing, do with it what you will!

I’ll be having mine on the side!