Grilled Shrimp and Vegetable Tacos with Chipotle-Yogurt Sauce

I love, love, love seafood - especially shrimp and salmon - it's always my go-to choice at any restaurant. The flavor of seafood is great of course, but I also like how quickly it cooks up, which makes it such a great weeknight meal option. I try to schedule seafood once a week on our menu plan - it's healthy and quick, but it is a bit more expensive than chicken, beans, or other protein options.

When it's grilling season, my favorite way to cook shrimp is to thread it on skewers with some vegetables (and occasionally with bacon - oh my...) and brush it with some wonderful sauce. Surprisingly in the 6+ years of this blog, I have not added any skewer/kabob recipes. It's surprising because I seriously do rely on them all summer long.

Let's fix that now with this one dish meal of (slightly) spicy grilled shrimp and vegetable skewers that you serve in shells with a yummy chipotle-yogurt sauce to make amazing tacos.

Aren't you glad I decided to make July a month of grilling recipes? Me too! So far I've shared chipotle-spiced grilled chicken and a Thai-style salad of grilled pork and vegetables with a brew-pub style burger and Greek-style lettuce wraps in the works, so stay tuned for more real, simple, family grilled meals!

But first, let's talk about these tacos, shall we?

I know not all of you enjoy spicy foods like we do - I always want you to know that it's easy to tone down the heat (or leave it out completely) if you want. Definitely feel free to adapt to your family's taste! With this incredibly easy sauce (blend a few ingredients and voila! amazing sauce), you can decide to add from only a half chipotle up to 2 for pretty spicy (if you dare go beyond 2, you're on your own, ha!).

If you think that even a half chipotle may be too spicy (though really, it's only flavor at that point, but I know some of you are wary of spice), I'd suggest blending the rest of the sauce ingredients with 1/4 to 1/3 cup of a salsa that you know works for your family. It will still get you a nice creamy sauce to marinate your shrimp in and add to your tacos, since it's really the sauce that takes these over the top!

We like our grilled vegetables to remain crispy and just slightly charred, so it works well with the fast cooking shrimp. If you'd like your vegetables cooked longer, just thread all your vegetables onto separate skewers and leave them on the grill until they're done to your liking.

I hope you'll try these soon - they really are such a fantastic, light summer meal that's ready to go in about 30 minutes and my family loves them!

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5 from 1 vote

Grilled Shrimp and Vegetable Tacos with Chipotle Yogurt Sauce

Quick grilled shrimp & vegetable skewers with a spicy chipotle-yogurt sauce that make amazing tacos for a 30 minute meal.

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time10 mins

Total Time30 mins

Course: Main Dish

Cuisine: Southwest

Yield: 8 skewers

Author: Jami Boys

Equipment

• 8 metal skewers or bamboo skewers

Ingredients

Chipotle Yogurt Sauce:

• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 to 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce*
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 small lemon juiced (about 1 ½ tablespoons)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

Shrimp & Vegetable Tacos:

• 1 pound raw shrimp peeled and deveined
• 1/3 pound snap peas or green beans (or whatever's in season) enough for 2-4 per skewer
• 1 red sweet pepper
• 4 tiny onions or a small onion
• 8 flour or corn tortillas taco size

Instructions

Make Sauce:

• Add all ingredients to the bowl of a blender or food processor and whir until smooth. Pour half into a small bowl and transfer the remaining sauce to a small jar or pitcher for serving, refrigerating until needed.

Make Shrimp & Tacos:

• To the small bowl with half the sauce, add the prepared shrimp, tossing to coat well. Marinate while prepping the vegetables (or for up to 30 minutes).
• Prep all vegetables: snap and string peas or beans; seed and slice peppers, cutting into rectangles for skewers; cut tiny onions in half or a small whole onion into quarters and then in half to skewer. TIP: I find it easiest to group all the vegetables in the order I want to thread them - 2 peas, a pepper, onion, pepper, 2 peas - then it's easy to grab them and evenly divided between the skewers.
• Using metal skewers (if using bamboo, soak 20 minutes before threading), add the vegetables and shrimp in an order like this: peas, shrimp, pepper, shrimp, onion, shrimp, pepper, shrimp, peas (or however you'd like).**
• Grill skewers, covered, over direct heat, turning once, for 5-8 minutes, or until shrimp are done (pink and opaque). While grill is hot, briefly grill tortillas until char marks appear - transfer to a cloth-lined plate to keep warm.
• Serve skewers with tortillas and reserved sauce, letting each person remove shrimp and vegetable from skewers onto a tortilla and drizzling more sauce on top.

Notes

*We use 2 peppers for a nice spice- adjust to your family's taste OR use 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup salsa if chipotles are too spicy for you.

**If you don't have skewers or don't want to use them, you can grill the shrimp on foil or a tray separately and use a grill basket to grill the vegetables.

Nutrition calculated with flour tortilla taco as pictured.

Nutrition

Serving: 1skewer/taco | Calories: 189kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 18g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 144mg | Sodium: 804mg | Potassium: 236mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 671IU | Vitamin C: 41mg | Calcium: 160mg | Iron: 3mg

Did you make this recipe?Mention @anoregoncottage or tag #anoregoncottage!

Pin this to add to your favorite meal board to remember later! (Do you follow me on Pinterest? I'm always pinning great content like this on boards like Perfect Main Dishes, Seafood, One Dish Dinners, and more.)