Ceviche is a dish popular throughout the coastal areas of Mexico, Central, and South America. It’s made with raw seafood “cooked” in citrus juices. This is our favorite shrimp ceviche recipe to make at home, which includes lime, cilantro, and avocado. It’s incredibly fresh and delicious. I love it with homemade tortilla chips or plantain chips. If you love this recipe’s combination of lime, cilantro, and shrimp, you might also enjoy our pickled shrimp or cilantro lime shrimp.
Key Ingredients
Shrimp: Fresh-caught shrimp is best for this recipe, but since they aren’t always accessible, we’ve adapted this recipe to gently poach them in very hot water before marinating them in citrus juice. Your ceviche will still be excellent, but we’ve added an extra layer of safety so you can use the shrimp you have available. If you have reputable, fresh-caught shrimp, that’s great! See the tips section below for our recipe for using raw shrimp. Citrus: I use freshly squeezed lemon and lime juice for this shrimp ceviche and love it! Red Onion: You can use any onion you have, but I love the color of red onion. If you are usually sensitive to raw onion, the lime and lemon juice will tone it down quite a bit. Cucumber: It adds a bit of crunch! Chile Peppers: These add a little heat. Use as much or as little as you like. I use a jalapeño and Fresno chili pepper in our photos. I remove the seeds and white membrane from inside the pepper before mincing and adding it to my ceviche. Cilantro: It adds color and fresh flavor. If you don’t enjoy cilantro, substitute it with parsley or leave it out. Avocado: This is optional, but I love shrimp ceviche with avocado.
How to Make Shrimp Ceviche
Shrimp ceviche is a happy food. Its fresh, bright flavors and light shrimp make it one of my favorite warm-weather dishes. It’s also super easy to make. I talked a little about this, but I gently poach my shrimp in boiling water when making shrimp ceviche at home. Authentic shrimp ceviche usually relies on the acid in the limes or lemons to firm up the shrimp, but the shrimp used in this case would have likely been freshly caught. Since most of our shrimp is probably bought from the grocery store, I incorporate a quick and simple safety step to ensure no bacteria are left on the shrimp before eating it. If you are lucky enough to have very fresh, well-sourced shrimp, you can skip my poaching step (tips for raw shrimp ceviche are below the recipe)! To poach the shrimp, I bring a pot of water to a boil, add the shrimp, and then immediately remove the pot from the heat. I leave the shrimp in the poaching liquid until just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes. You can tell when the shrimp is cooked when it’s firm and opaque throughout. This is almost exactly the same method I use for my poached shrimp recipe. When the shrimp have finished poaching, I cut them into pieces and add them to a bowl with lime juice, lemon juice, red onion, cucumber, minced chile peppers, and cilantro. Then, I allow the shrimp to sit with the other ceviche ingredients in the fridge for about 30 minutes. When ready to serve, I toss in my avocado and dig in! I like to serve shrimp ceviche like a salsa alongside plantain chips or homemade tortilla chips. You can also serve it over rice, on tostadas (a crunchy fried or toasted tortilla), with sliced and roasted sweet potatoes, or on salads. 3/4 cup (177ml) freshly squeezed lime juice, 6 to 7 limes 1/4 cup (60ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice, 1 to 2 lemons 1/4 medium red onion, finely minced 1 cup diced cucumber 2 chile peppers like Fresno, serrano, or jalapeño, deseeded and minced 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro 1 medium avocado, diced 2Bring the water to a boil, add the shrimp, and then immediately remove the pot from the heat. Leave the shrimp in the poaching liquid until just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes. You can tell when the shrimp is cooked when it’s firm and opaque throughout. 3If you have freshly caught shrimp, you can skip the poaching step; see our tips in the notes below and in the article above. 4Remove the shrimp from the poaching liquid and spread them out on a cutting board to cool. When the shrimp are cool enough to handle, remove the tails (if there are any) and chop them into bite-size pieces. 5Add the cucumber, onion, minced chile peppers, cilantro, and chopped shrimp to a non-reactive bowl (glass, stainless steel, and ceramic bowls are perfect). 6Pour over the citrus juices and a pinch of salt. Toss well, then press the shrimp down into the liquid as much as possible. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours. 7Just before serving, stir in the avocado. Taste and season with salt if necessary.
