Grilled Shrimp with Green Harissa
A really simple spin on a classic spicy Moroccan pepper paste: Grilled Shrimp with Green Harissa.

In this episode of Guide to Summer, Phoebe Lapine will show you how to make delicious grilled shrimp skewers! for when you’re having your friends over on a summer night. A really simple spin on a classic spicy Moroccan pepper paste: Grilled Shrimp with Green Harissa.
While harissa paste is usually made with red peppers, Phoebe turns it green by adding in some baby spinach, cilantro, and some poblano peppers to make it a little spicy!
First, you start out with the harissa sauce, which will be used to marinate the shrimp and also as a dipping sauce. Add in the sauce ingredients as well as some ground coriander, ground cumin, and some fresh lemon juice into a food processor to make it into a puree. The last ingredient for the sauce is a little fresh garlic and finally add some water (not oil!) to make sure it has that puree consistency. Once it’s pureed, season your sauce with a little salt and your sauce is ready!
Now you can move on to the shrimp. Phoebe shows you how to prepare the shrimp by using your fingers to pry away the edge. Once your shrimp is ready, you can toss it in a bowl with some of the sauce to marinate it and then put them on your skewers to grill.
Place your skewered shrimp onto your grill once you grease the grates (since you didn't marinate the shrimp with any oil already.) Cook these with pretty high heat until they're opaque all the way through. Serve these with your dipping sauce and you have a beautiful appetizer great for your summer dinner party.
Ingredients
- 2 cups chopped cilantro
- 1½ cups baby spinach leaves
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 poblano peppers, chopped
- ¼ cup water
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon coriander
- ½ lemon, juiced
- Sea salt to taste
- 1 pound large shrimp, shelled and deveined
Instructions
Soak ten 8-inch bamboo skewers in water for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the cilantro, spinach, garlic, poblanos, cumin, coriander, water and lemon juice in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Blend until the harissa is slightly thinner than pesto. Season with salt to taste. Light a grill or preheat a grill pan. In a medium bowl, toss the shrimp with 1/4 cup of the harissa. Transfer the remaining harissa to a small bowl. Thread 2 or 3 shrimp onto each skewer. Grill the shrimp over moderately high heat, turning once, until lightly charred and cooked through, about 1 minute per side. Serve the shrimp with the remaining harissa. Serves 4
Nutrition Information
Nutrition Information Based on a Single Serving
*Percent Daily Value are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Dietary Needs



Carbohydrate
Phoebe Lapine is a food and health writer, gluten-free chef, wellness personality, culinary instructor, blogger, recipe developer and speaker, born and raised in New York City, where she continues to live and eat.
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[MUSIC]
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I'm Phoebe LaPine, and you're watching
HealthiNation's Guide To Summer.
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[MUSIC]
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Today, I'm gonna show you one
of my favorite party skewers.
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We're gonna make a really simple spin on
the classic spicy Moroccan pepper paste,
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grilled shrimp with green harissa.
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Usually, it's made with red peppers.
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Today, we're gonna make a green version
with baby spinach, cilantro, and
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some poblano peppers to make
it just a little bit spicy.
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So I'm gonna start by making my sauce,
and then that's gonna double as both
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a marinade for the shrimp and
also as a dipping sauce.
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So we're just gonna dump this
stuff in the food processor,
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a couple handfuls of baby spinach,
which is,
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of course, packed with vitamins, and
then I have a whole bunch of cilantro.
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Unlike some woodier herbs,
you can actually eat the stem.
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We're pureeing it up and
it's got a ton of flavor so
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we're just gonna throw the whole bunch in.
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And then some chopped up poblano peppers,
which are a little bit milder than
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jalapeños and serranos, but it's gonna
give just a hint of kick to this sauce.
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Then, cuz it's a Moroccan recipe,
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we're gonna do a little bit of
ground coriander and ground cumin.
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Some freshly squeezed lemon juice, I'm
just gonna squeeze it over my hands and
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catch any seeds.
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The last ingredient for a sauce,
we're just gonna add some fresh garlic.
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So the key to getting off this skin is
just to put your knife down on it and
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use your brute force of your body, and
then the skin just slips right off.
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I love garlic.
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It's really good for you,
especially in raw form.
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A bit of water to make
that puree up nicely.
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This sauce is not oil-based, so it's
a lot healthier than like a pesto, say.
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[NOISE] Beautiful.
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So that's nice and smooth and gorgeous.
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We season with a bit of salt, which
will be seasoning up our shrimp as well.
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I'm gonna get my shrimp prepared.
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Just kind of use your
fingers to pry away the edge,
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and you can just slip
it off like a jacket.
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And I like to leave the tails
on just because it looks so
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much more rustic and beautiful.
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So you just want to run
your knife along the back.
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There's a thin line.
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Pull it up with your knife,
and just use your finger.
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There.
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That's as simple as that.
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Beautiful and clean.
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Put the shrimp in the mixing bowl.
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Then take a bit of marinade,
about a fourth of a cup.
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Toss the shrimps around, get them nice and
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coated in that delicious herb and
citrus mixture.
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So I'm gonna string about
two shrimp on each of these.
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Do them however you like, alternate or
do them all in the same direction.
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I'm gonna get these on the fire,
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and then we'll pour the rest of our
marinade into a dish for dipping.
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So since we didn't put
any oil in our marinade,
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I'm just gonna quickly grease the grates
so that our shrimp don't stick.
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Now let's just get them on there.
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We're gonna keep the heat pretty high,
and that way we'll get
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all those beautiful dark char marks
without overcooking the shrimp.
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We'll give them a little flip.
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Beautiful.
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So I love using this marinade with
a variety of different things.
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It's especially great for
seafood with all the right herbs.
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I love doing it on salmon,
a grilled flank steak,
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anything that can hold up
to a little bit of heat.
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So these are looking beautiful.
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You can kinda tell when they're
opaque all the way through.
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It's gonna cook for a little bit longer.
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Once it gets off the grill,
you wanna make sure not to overcook it.
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So I'm gonna get these off.
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Serve right along side the dipping sauce.
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This is just a great entree or
a nice light summer appetizer.
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These look cool enough to take a bite.
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I'm just gonna pop one off,
give it a little dip.
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The spicy bright sauce tastes so
good with the shrimp.
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Such a perfect light summer entree.
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I'm Phoebe Lapine.
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You've been watching HealthiNation's Guide
to Summer, and I'll see you next time.
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