Coconut, Lime and Chili Shrimp

Start things off by cooking the rice as per the instructions on the package. While the rice cooks, start the shrimp.

Melt the coconut oil in a hot skillet. This stuff is amazing, and you should really read up on the benefits of pure organic coconut oil. It’s great for skin, cooking and your overall health. Also, it’s delicious. It doesn’t have any artificial sweeteners in it, so it’s not overly sweet. Instead, it has a soft and natural coconut aroma and taste—far better than the over-sweetened variety filled with garbage additives.

Once the oil has melted down into a liquid, still over high heat, squeeze the juice of the lime into the pan. Okay, place your shrimp into the pan on high heat and let them cook for a minute or so. Sprinkle some chili powder over the shrimp. After about a minute, flip the shrimp to the other side and let them simmer for approximately 25 seconds. It doesn’t take shrimp long to cook on high heat and, if overcooked, they shrivel and develop a rubbery texture. Nobody wants to chew on erasers.

Transport the shrimp from the skillet to a separate container with a lid. Sprinkle with a bit more chili powder if desired, drizzle a bit more lime juice on them, cover and toss. Leave them covered in the meantime to keep them warm. Don’t wash the skillet; just set it aside.

Chop the baby bok choy into bite size pieces. You can use normal bok choy if you prefer. I just like using baby bok choy because they come in convenient little portions. Make sure to take it apart and wash thoroughly. Bok choy often has dirt within its crevices.

Julienne the carrot and the red bell pepper. Julienne-style is basically cutting your veggies lengthwise, and very thin. This is a personal preference of mine. I just feel that you get more of an even distribution of flavours with every bite when you chop things in this fashion, rather than getting one big piece of this veggie in this bite, and a giant chunk of that veggie in another bite. If you’d prefer to cube your vegetables, then go nuts, weirdo! (I jest.)

Toss all of the veggies into the skillet with the leftover coconut oil from the shrimp. Drop in the peanut butter and your choice of how much Sriracha sauce you want. I like my heat, that’s no secret. So I put the listed amount of Sriracha in there to mingle with the PB.

So, earlier I did say that I didn’t want to use Sriracha to add heat to the shrimp. It’s true. I didn’t want to use it directly on the shrimp. Mixed into the rice, we’re good to go. It’s not going to overpower the shrimp at all after having been mixed in with melted down peanut butter, and tossed into the rice and veggies. I just wanted to clarify that!

After approximately 1 minute of sauteing the veggies in the coconut oil, peanut butter and Sriracha, add the rice (it should be ready by now). Toss well to ensure that everything is coated evenly.

This pan is pretty darn fragrant at this point, and you’re probably getting pretty excited about what you’re about to chow down. Once everything is evenly coated, remove the skillet from the heat and add the scallions.

Spoon the rice onto a plate and place your shrimp on top. Squeeze the juice of the other lime on top of the finished plates, and zest a lime over the top of the shrimp. I sort of felt like a waiter at an Italian restaurant grinding Parmesan cheese over pasta as I did this. “Some lime zest for your shrimp, ma’am?“ Yes, please.