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A Quick and Easy Salvadoran Shrimp Ceviche

Inside: A quick and easy recipe for a delicious Salvadoran Shrimp Ceviche using either raw or cooked shrimp.

We are not only raising our son bilingually, but also biculturally and one way we expose him to his Salvadoran roots is through food.

Luckily, my partner is a chef, so he’s got this aspect taken care of, while I focus on the linguistics!

Have you ever tried Salvadoran food? If you haven’t, you need to now.

Pupusas, tamales, carne asada, oh, it’s all so flavorful and delicious, you will be craving more as soon as you’re done your plate.

We’ll kick start our Salvadoran food series with this quick and easy Salvadoran shrimp ceviche.

Once you have gobbled up your ceviche, come back to check out some of Carlos’ other Salvadoran delights!

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A quick and easy Salvadoran Shrimp Ceviche

Here’s a little anecdote I’d like to share.

Believe it or not, I used to be a picky eater, especially during my first trip to Nicaragua. I remember turning my nose up to fresh fruit juices, pinto gallo and homemade cheeses. Even Nicaraguan pizza didn’t cut it out for me.

Thank baby Jesus that I met Carlos in 2011, who whipped my picky-ass into shape. Whether I wanted to or not, he made me try new things, and each and every time, I was more and more surprised. It was all sooooo freaking delicious, my palate felt robbed of 19 years + of deliciousness.

Now that I am a mama, one of my parenting goals, apart from raising a Spanish-speaker, was to raise an adventurous eater. So, as soon as Lennox turned six-months-old, we started him on solid foods through baby-led weaning, and jokes aside, this kid eats everything. By nine-months, he was eating shellfish. His favorite food at one-year-old was this Typical Salvadoran Shrimp Ceviche. Watch the video below to see his serious love for Ceviche at almost one-year-old.

Learn more about baby led weaning here.

What is Ceviche?

Ceviche, pronouched (se-VEE-chay), is a Latin American dish which primarily consists of sliced shellfish marinated in lime juice. The acidity of the lime juice ‘cooks’ the shellfish— a process called Denaturation. Denaturation gives the appearance of being cooked, but has a much different texture and taste then actually being cooked by heat.

Here you can see the difference between shrimp that is flash boiled (on the left) and shrimp that is cooked by lime (on the right)

A Quick and Easy Salvadoran Shrimp Ceviche

A Quick and Easy Salvadoran Shrimp Ceviche

Yield: 10 servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

  • 10 Roma tomatoes, diced
  • 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
  • ½ Cup Of Fresh Cilantro. You can’t have enough cilantro, so add more If you love It like I do!
  • 1 1/2 lbs. of raw shrimp, peeled and deveined. Chop into 1/2′ inch pieces.
  • 15 Limes. Make sure the limes are juicy. The thinner the rinds, the more juicy they are.
  • *Do not use lime juice from a container. Fresh lime juice is recommended for best results and flavor.
  • 1 tablespoon of salt
  • Tostada Tortillas, or Tortilla chips for scooping
  • 1 Avocado (optional)– deseeded And diced.
  • 1 Cucumber (optional)– Diced.
  • To add heat, 1 jalapeño, deseeded and chopped.

Instructions

    Step one: Chop shrimp into ½ inch pieces and transfer to a bowl.

    Step two: Add a tablespoon of salt to the shrimp, mix it into the shrimp, and let sit for 10 minutes. This begins the ‘cooking’ process of the shrimp.

    Step three: Cut limes in half and in the same bowl with the shrimp, use a Lime Squeezer and squeeze the juice out of the limes. Let sit for 30 minutes in the refrigerator to finish ‘cooking’.

    Step four: While the shrimp are ‘cooking’ you can dice your tomatoes, chop your onion and cilantro and transfer to a large bowl. If you want your ceviche to have spice, add chopped deseeded jalapeño to the mix.

    Step five: Once 30 minutes is up, your shrimp should have turned from a gray raw color to a whitish-orange color. ** Note, this process of cooking the shrimp will still leave the shrimp with a raw texture. If you prefer, instead of ‘cooking’ the shrimp in lime, you can flash boil them (add the shrimp for 15 seconds seconds to already boiling water) then continue to cook in the lime.

    Step six: Then, add the now ‘cooked’ shrimp with the rest of your ingredients.

    Step seven: You can add more salt to taste.

    Step eight: Enjoy with or without Tortilla chips and a cold beer!

We hope you ejoyed this recipe, because we sure do on the weekly. There are lots more Latin American recipes that Lennox enjoys on the way. Stay tuned =)

Kelly

Thursday 18th of March 2021

Hi Lorena, I'm so happy that my neighbor uses Clamato on the Salvadorian ceviche to give it a flavor. And make sure that the Clamato has to be either the blue cap or the yellow cap, no red or green caps. Gracias!

Tati Serpas

Saturday 4th of July 2020

¡Hola, Lorena! ¿Somos paisanas? I am Salvadoran Spanish teacher. I am so happy I found your blog! Thank you for the tips, anecdotes and recipes! I enjoyed watching the video of Lennox eating ceviche. He's such a beautiful kid. I must admit I have never enjoyed seafood, but when I read the word pupusas, I started drooling.

Lorena Ruprecht

Monday 10th of August 2020

¡Hola Tati! ¡Somos paisanas de corazón!!!

I am so glad you found our blog, we hope you keep coming back to check out our vida bilingüe!

Mamie

Saturday 8th of June 2019

This seems like an easy recipe.

Laurin Ruprecht

Friday 21st of June 2019

It really is an easy recipe.

Lilia

Friday 7th of June 2019

Looks so delicious and colourful and sounds quite easy to make too. I love shrimps!

Laurin Ruprecht

Friday 21st of June 2019

Yes, it is a simple and delicious recipe!

Jennifer Maune

Friday 7th of June 2019

Yum! This looks so delicious! I would love to try this soon!

-Jenniferhttps://maunelegacy.com

Laurin Ruprecht

Friday 21st of June 2019

You should! It's a great summer recipe!

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