Hawaiian Luau Spinach Salad Topped with Carrot Flowers

Add a bit of color to your summer salads by tossing in some yellow, orange and purple carrot flowers. This Hawaiian Luau Spinach Salad will make a wonderful lunch for a pool party or any summertime event. This is a sponsored post in partnership with Newman’s Own.

Salads are a part of our daily diet around here, but I have to admit to being a bit lazy when it comes to the ingredients. I tend to toss the same vegetables together with the same dressing time and time again.

It gets boring.

When I was asked to bring a salad to a friend’s house for an afternoon spent by the pool, I decided it was time to get out of my rut and make something more exotic.

Being it’s been so gloomy around here lately and we were actually going to get to eat outside, I wanted something that was as bright and cheerful as the sunny day.

I thought back to a salad that I enjoyed years ago at a local restaurant. It was piled high with layers of spinach, pineapple, carrots, shrimp, and fried won ton strips all coated in ginger dressing. It was such an unusual flavor combination, but I loved how with each bite I’d get a burst of sweetness from the pineapple offset by the zesty ginger and savory shrimp.

When I recreate this salad at home, I use Newman’s Own Lowfat Sesame Ginger Dressing. It has just the right ginger flavor to compliment the salad.

Being I wanted to make my salads really special, I added some rainbow carrots cut into pretty little flowers. The pop of purple, yellow and orange took my salad from boring to beautiful.

I’m happy to be partnering with Newman’s Own to share this recipe with you today.

Did you know that by purchasing Newman’s Own dressings to put on your salads that you’re helping charitable causes?

Since 1982 founder, Paul Newman, and Newman’s Own Foundation have given more than $430 million to charities. That’s pretty astonishing.

Hawaiian Luau Spinach Salad Topped with Carrot Flowers

Ingredients: (makes 4 salads)

Salad-
4 colorful carrots (purple, yellow, orange, light orange)
8 cups baby spinach leaves
30-40 sugar snap peas, cut in half*
1 1/3 cups diced pineapple
1/2 cup Newman’s Own Lighten Up Low Fat Sesame Ginger Dressing , divided
3/4 cup crunchy chow mein noodles, optional

Sauteed Shrimp-
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 pound raw large shrimp, peeled and cleaned
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon sugar

* If you don’t like the intense crunch of the sugar snap peas, you can blanch them to soften them slightly. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the sugar snap peas for 30 seconds. Remove and place in a bowl filled with ice water. Remove and pat dry before adding to the salad.

Supplies:
small flower cutters

Instructions:

Clean and peel your colored carrots. Cut them into thin slices.

Use small flower cutters to cut flower shapes out of the carrot slices. I used a plunger cutter, a metal cutter, and a plastic cutter. They all worked equally well and gave me a variety of sizes.

Don’t toss out all the scraps from your slices. You’ll want to chop them up and toss them in the salad.

Toss together the spinach, pineapple, sugar snap peas and chopped up carrots along with 1/4 cup of the Newman’s Own Sesame Ginger Dressing. Reserve the flowers for on top of the salad.

I only made enough for 2 salads so I didn’t use all the chopped carrots. As with any salad you can adjust the amount of ingredients used to your liking.

To sauté the shrimp:

Heat oil in a 12″ stainless steel skillet over high heat. Pat shrimp dry with paper towel. Toss shrimp with salt, pepper and sugar until evenly coated. Once oil just begins to smoke, place shrimp in skillet in one even layer. Cook until the edges turn pink, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat.

Turn shrimp over. Cover skillet for 1-2 minutes until shrimp are cooked through.

I only cooked a small amount of shrimp at a time so that I could get nice pictures. You’ll be able to get 1/2 pound of shrimp in a single layer in your skillet, so you’ll need to make two batches to make enough for 4 salads.

When you are ready to serve the salads, divide the salad among four plates. Arrange 1/4 of the shrimp, carrot flowers, and chow mein noodles on each salad.

Drizzle a tablespoon of Newman’s Own Sesame Ginger dressing over top and enjoy.

This post was sponsored by Newman’s Own. I received compensation and free product in exchange for creating this recipe post. All opinions expressed here are my own.

You can find items to make this recipe from Amazon.com. (commission earned for sales)

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