A Light + Easy Shrimp Taco Salad with Chili-Yogurt Sauce

Taco salad is one of America’s favorite types of salad, and it even pleases those people who claim to “not like salad.” But let’s be honest: The average taco salad is often piled high with sour cream and cheese, and it often uses ground beef flavored with high-sodium taco seasoning packets. Delicious, yes. Good for the heart? Not so much.

This shrimp taco salad is spicy and zesty, but it’s much lighter in saturated fat and sodium—both of which are known to commit crimes against the heart. Instead, this salad gets a punch of flavor from fresh pineapple, sliced scallion, and jalapeño.

Nervous about cooking shrimp? You don’t have to. It’s true that shrimp can be intimidating to prepare, with all that peeling and deveining. Luckily, you can buy pre-cooked shrimp with the tails removed, and they’ve already been peeled and deveined. They’re literally ready to use, and they’re perfect for salads.

Here’s another trick: Instead of a dollop of sour cream, this shrimp taco salad uses a two-ingredient yogurt sauce. (TBH, plain and unsweetened yogurt tastes a lot like sour cream, anyway.) If making a salad dressing from scratch stresses you out, fear not: All you have to do is whisk chili powder into yogurt. No sugar, no salt, and loads of flavor.

If you don’t eat (or can’t eat) shrimp, there are lots of substitutions you can make for an equally heart-healthy taco salad. Try chickpeas, either fresh from the can (look for a reduced-sodium option) or roasted and crispy and seasoned with chili powder. (Check out this recipe for spicy, roasted chickpeas.)