Roasted Sweet Potato, Black Bean, and Shrimp Salad

One of my MFP friends this week asked that I make a high protein salad. Not really knowing what that meant, I decided to make a sweet potato and black bean salad. Unfortunately this combo only resulted in being 8 grams of protein. Clearly I have no idea on protein or something.

But this salad did magically become a high protein salad.

The night before I had made coconut shrimp for dinner. Thing is.. I didn't end up eating it, because I had forgotten I had dinner plans. But I didn't want the shrimp to go bad, so since they were thawed out I cooked them up and decided I could find a use for them later. Their use became apparent the next morning when I was throwing this salad together. In the shrimp went and up the protein increased to 23 grams!

I've really started to love sweet potato, so this is also a plus. I think the next two recipes you'll see after this one involve the sweet potato. It seems like sweet potato and spinach are the two staples as of late in my recipes.

This recipe is definitely going to be entered into Kahakai Kitchen's Souper Sundays!

Roasted Sweet Potato, Black Bean, and Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

2 egg whites

1 1/2 cups panko

1 tsp ground cumin

3/4 cup flaked coconut

24 large shrimp, shelled and deveined

3 large sweet potatoes

1 large onion, chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tbsp fresh lime juice

1 14-oz can black beans

1 cup chopped cilantro

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 500.

2. Beat egg whites in a small dish. Combine the bread crumbs, coconut, and 1/2 tsp of cumin in a ziplock bag.

3. Dip the shrimp in the egg whites and then shake in the dry mixture. Add to a baking sheet.

4. Bake for 6 minutes. Flip over. Bake for 6 more minutes. Set the shrimp aside.

5. Reduce the oven temperature to 400. Place the sweet potato and onion in a baking dish. Toss with 1 tbsp olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and mix with the shrimp. Add the black beans as well.

6. In a small bowl mix together 2 tbsp of olive oil, salt, garlic, lime juice, cilantro, and 1/2 tsp of cumin.

7. Pour the dressing over the sweet potato and shrimp mixture. Toss well.

* serves 4

CALORIES: 566 calories
CHOLESTEROL: 71 milligrams
FAT: 18 grams
SODIUM: 851 milligrams