Today's Recipe - 15-Minute Shrimp and Avocado Salad

Today's Recipe
If you don't know what to serve for dinner tonight ...
This quick and easy shrimp salad makes the perfect light meal or a substantial side salad. It is a great tasting combination of shrimp and plenty of health-promoting vegetables.

15-Minute Shrimp and Avocado Salad
Prep and Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:

• 1 lb cooked medium sized shrimp (buy still frozen if possible for freshness), remove tails
• 1 medium-sized tomato, seeded and chopped
• 3 scallions, chopped
• 1 large clove garlic, pressed
• 2 TBS fresh lemon juice
• 1 TBS balsamic vinegar
• 1 large firm avocado, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 TBS chopped cilantro
• 1 TBS chopped fresh mint
• 2 TBS chopped pumpkin seeds
• salt and pepper to taste
• pinch red pepper flakes
• extra virgin olive oil to taste
• 1 head small romaine lettuce, outer leaves removed

Directions:

1. Make sure shrimp is completely unfrozen if you buy it already cooked. Pat it dry with paper towels.
2. Mix all ingredients, except lettuce, in a bowl. For optimum flavor, marinate in refrigerator for 15 minutes or more. It is still very good served right away if you don't have the time. Serve on bed of chopped romaine lettuce.

Serves 4 Serving Suggestion: Serve with

• Zesty Mexican Soup

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In-Depth Nutritional Profile for 15-Minute Shrimp and Avocado Salad
Healthy Food Tip

The Latest News about Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin seeds—also known as pepitas—are flat, dark green seeds. Some are encased in a yellow-white husk (often called the "shell"), although some varieties of pumpkins produce seeds without shells. Pumpkin seeds have a malleable, chewy texture and a subtly sweet, nutty flavor. While roasted pumpkins seeds are probably best known for their role as a perennial Halloween treat, these seeds are so delicious, and nutritious, that they can be enjoyed throughout the year. In many food markets, pepitas are available in all of the forms described above—raw and shelled, raw and unshelled, roasted and shelled, roasted and unshelled.

What's New and Beneficial About Pumpkin Seeds

• Pumpkin seeds have long been valued as a source of the mineral zinc, and the World Health Organization recommends their consumption as a good way of obtaining this nutrient. If you want to maximize the amount of zinc that you will be getting from your pumpkin seeds, we recommend that you consider purchasing them in unshelled form. Although recent studies have shown there to be little zinc in the shell itself (the shell is also called the seed coat or husk), there is a very thin layer directly beneath the shell called the endosperm envelope, and it is often pressed up very tightly against the shell. Zinc is especially concentrated in this endosperm envelope. Because it can be tricky to separate the endosperm envelope from the shell, eating the entire pumpkin seed - shell and all - will ensure that all of the zinc-containing portions of the seed will be consumed. Whole roasted, unshelled pumpkin seeds contain about 10 milligrams of zinc per 3.5 ounces, and shelled roasted p umpkin seeds (which are often referred to pumpkin seed kernels) contain about 7-8 milligrams. So even though the difference is not huge, and even though the seed kernels remain a good source of zinc, you'll be able to increase your zinc intake if you consume the unshelled version.
• While pumpkin seeds are not a highly rich source of vitamin E in the form of alpha-tocopherol (they come in 31st among our WHFoods in terms of their vitamin E richness), recent studies have shown that pumpkin seeds provide us with vitamin E in a wide diversity of forms. From any fixed amount of a vitamin, we are likely to get more health benefits when we are provided with that vitamin in all of its different forms. In the case of pumpkin seeds, vitamin E is found in all of the following forms: alpha-tocopherol, gamma-tocopherol, delta-tocopherol, alpha-tocomonoenol, and gamma-tocomonoenol. These last two forms have only recently been discovered in pumpkin seeds, and their health benefits - inclu ding antioxidant benefits - are a topic of current interest in vitamin E research, since their bioavailability might be greater than some of the other vitamin E forms. The bottom line: pumpkin seeds' vitamin E content may bring us more health benefits that we would ordinarily expect due to the diverse forms of vitamin E found in this food.
• In our Tips for Preparing section, we recommend a roasting time for pumpkin seeds of no more than 15-20 minutes when roasting at home. This recommendation supported by a new study that pinpointed 20 minutes as a threshold time for changes in pumpkin seed fats. In this recent study, pumpkin seeds were roasted in a microwave oven for varying lengths of time, and limited changes in the pumpkin seeds fat were determined to occur under 20 minutes. However, when the seeds were roasted for longer than 20 minutes, a number of unwanted changes in fat structure were determined to occur more frequently.

Health Benefits

Pumpkin provide numerous health benefits including:

• Antioxidant support
• Mineral support
• Blood sugar management
• Anti-microbial benefits

For more details on pumpkin seeds' health benefits, see this section of our pumpkin seeds write-up.

Nutritional Profile

Pumpkin seeds contain a wide variety of antioxidant phytonutrients, including the phenolic acids hydroxybenzoic, caffeic, coumaric, ferulic, sinapic, protocatechuic, vanillic, and syringic acid; and the lignans pinoresinol, medioresinol, and lariciresinol. Pumpkins seeds also contain health-supportive phytosterols, including beta-sitosterol, sitostanol, and avenasterol. Pumpkin seeds are a very good source of bone-building phosphorus, magnesium. and manganese. They are also a good source of other minerals including immune-supportive zinc and copper and energy-producing iron . In addition, pumpkin seeds are a good source of muscle-building protein.
For more on this nutrient-rich seed, including references related to this Latest News, see our write-up on pumpkin seeds.