Shrimp Ceviche
This easy shrimp ceviche is a Peruvian dish that marinates shrimp, onion, tomatoes, jalapeno, and avocado in bright, zesty citrus marinade. It’s a delicious meal that is super simple to put together and you don’t even have to turn on the stove!
Fresh shrimp ceviche is one of those healthy dishes that tastes so good you forget it’s good for you. It’s low calorie, keto, and just plain delicious.
This easy recipe for uses fresh shrimp, citrus juices from orange, lemon, and lime, and a little red onion, tomatoes, and spicy jalapeno for added flavor.
Once all of those bright, zesty flavors are absorbed we add some fresh avocado and cilantro to round it all out and that’s it. Dinner is served.
Eat it with some tortilla chips or, if you’re keeping it keto just grab a fork and dig in. This simple meal is one that will have you coming back for seconds.
If you love shrimp as much as we do you need to try our citrus marinated grilled shrimp, shrimp salad, or Instant Pot shrimp boil. You can even throw them in an air fryer quick and easy air fryer shrimp!
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What is Ceviche?
Ceviche is a healthy Peruvian dish that seafood lovers will instantly gravitate towards. It uses fresh, raw fish or shrimp that you cure in a variety of citrus juices, such as lemon, lime, and orange.
Once cured, you mix the shrimp with fresh veggies that you often find in a salsa. Often, this is served as an appetizer and it goes great with some of your favorite dippers, like tortilla chips.
Or you can spoon it on top of a salad for a healthier meal.
Ingredients You’ll Need
You’ll need these ingredients or can make some substitutions as needed:
- Shrimp – The shrimp “cooks” without heat in this recipe, so you want to make sure to use the freshest shrimp you can find.
- Citrus juices – You’ll need lime juice, lemon juice, and orange juice for this recipe.
- Kosher salt – You could use sea salt instead if you prefer.
- Red onion – You could use a different type, like white, if you prefer.
- Jalapeno pepper – You could substitute in other hot or even sweet peppers if you prefer. Buy a few extra and make some buffalo chicken jalapeno poppers, jalapeno corn dip, or jalapeno cornbread as well!
- Grape tomatoes – You could use another type of tomato, such as plum.
- Avocado – No good substitute for an avocado in this.
- Cilantro – Cilantro adds a freshness to shrimp and salsa-like mix.
Instructions
Step 1 – Make the citrus bath. In a small bowl, whisk the lime, lemon, and orange juices with a ½ teaspoon of a salt until well combined.
Step 2 – Cure the shrimp. Place the shrimp in a shallow baking dish, bowl, or container and then pour the citrus mixture over top of it. It doesn’t matter what container you use, but you need to make sure that the shrimp completely submerge in the cocktail. Once submerged, cover the container with plastic wrap and then place in the fridge for 30 minutes or until the shrimp turn a pink and white color.
Step 3 – Marinade the shrimp and veggies Toss the cured shrimp, juice blend, red onions, jalapenos, remaining salt, and tomatoes in a large bowl. Cover the mixture and place back in the fridge for 30 minutes. This will allow the flavors to come together.
Step 4 – Serve with a fresh avocado. Before serving, peel and cut your avocado into small chunks and mix into the ceviche along with the cilantro. Once the avocado is mixed in, serve it immediately.
Is Ceviche Cooked or Raw?
Ceviche often refers to the shrimp as “cured,” which basically means that it cold “cooks” in a citrus bath before serving. In this recipe, “cooking” means that it denatures the protein in the shrimp, which means it will have a similar appearance to cooking.
One of the reasons you need the freshest shrimp you can find is that the citrus bath does not kill bacteria living in the shrimp. But it is no more dangerous than eating sushi as long as you start with quality ingredients, you should be fine.
How Long Should Shrimp Sit in Lime Juice?
We find that leaving the shrimp in for about 30 minutes is just about perfect.
You want the juice to cook the shrimp, but if you leave the shrimp in too long, they can become tough.
When in doubt, we recommend going by the look of the shrimp. Uncooked shrimp is translucent and gray. Once it has cooked in the juice, it will turn a bright pink and white.
Using Cooked Shrimp
Uncooked shrimp not your thing? That’s OK! Not everyone likes the idea of shrimp that has only cured.
Here’s what you can do instead: buy fully cooked shrimp.
If you prefer, you could buy fresh or frozen shrimp and then boil a pot of water and cook the peeled shrimp for 2 minutes or until it is pink and white. Once cooked, remove from water carefully and pat dry with a paper towel.
You can then follow the rest of the instructions using cooked shrimp in place of raw shrimp.
Is Ceviche Keto?
Our recipe for ceviche is almost keto friendly. You will want to omit the orange juice due to the high sugar content.
The other ingredients all fall under a keto diet, so you should get the majority of the flavor of the regular recipe, minus the orange juice.
Otherwise, the high protein shrimp and avocado make a great keto combination of protein and fat.
That’s not our only keto shrimp recipe. Make sure you try our dill shrimp appetizer, chili garlic shrimp, and one pot low carb shrimp Alfredo too!
Looking for More Shrimp Recipes?
- Cheesy Shrimp Casserole
- Shrimp Alfredo Pasta
- Bang Bang Shrimp Sliders
- Tequila Shrimp Salsa with Tequila Lime Chips
- Portuguese Shrimp Turnovers – Rissóis de Camarão
- Dill Shrimp Appetizer
- One Pot Shrimp Linguine
- Shrimp Pil Pil Recipe
- Shrimp Cocktail Deviled Eggs
- More Shrimp Recipes…
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Shrimp Ceviche
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1/2 cup Lime juice
- 1/4 cup Lemon juice
- ¼ cup Orange juice
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt, divided
- 1 clove Garlic, finely minced
- 1/2 cup Finely diced red onion
- 1 tablespoon Finely diced jalapeno pepper
- 1 cup Diced grape tomatoes
- 2 Avocado, diced
- 1/2 cup Finely chopped cilantro
Instructions
- In a small bowl whisk together the lime juice, lemon juice, orange juice, ½ teaspoon salt, and garlic.
- Place shrimp in a shallow baking dish or container and pour the citrus mixture over it. You want to make sure all of the shrimp is in the juice. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. The shrimp is done when it is no longer translucent and has turned a pink and white color.
- Add “cooked” shrimp and juice to a large bowl with the red onions, jalapenos, and tomatoes. Sprinkle with the remaining salt and toss together. Cover and put it back in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to let the flavors meld together.
- When ready to serve peel and dice the avocado and add to the bowl along with the fresh cilantro. You can add a bit more salt if needed.
- Serve immediately.
Nutrition
I made this and it was delicious ! Only thing I would do different next time is get a different
Avocado .. They were too ripe and hard to work with but still tasted awesome !!!
I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks for stopping by to let us know 🙂
This is a question. Do you know of anyone who has a recipe for “Crevette Ravigôte?” I don’t know if that is the way to spell that last word. I had it in New Orleans once when all the restaurants showed off their favorite dishes and you could buy tickets and taste however many you wanted to try. This particular recipe was then given to people who asked for it, and it was on a small piece of paper. It had caper sauce in it, and it was recommended that you use fresh-made mayonaise. I made it many times but the recipe is lost and I can’t remember exactly how it was put together and what the other ingredients were. But it was delicious!!!
Paula, I do not but if I ever come across one, I will share it with you.