Grilled Coconut Lime Shrimp

Get outside and grill up a batch of these Grilled Coconut Lime Shrimp this week!

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Get outside and grill up a batch of these Grilled Coconut Lime Shrimp this weekend!Can I just put it out there (again) how happy I am that warmer weather has arrived for good?  I’m looking forward to taking walks with little Robbie.  And putzing around the garden.  And going to sleep with the windows open at night.  And getting out the grill.  Oh yes, the grill!  The smell of burgers sizzling away on a hot grill.  And taste of a cold beer on the back porch after a long day of work.  The buzzing of mosquitoes.  Yup, warmer weather is here!

Get outside and grill up a batch of these Grilled Coconut Lime Shrimp this weekend!So the buzzing of the mosquitoes isn’t exactly a welcome aspect of summer.  But I’ll put up with it if I have to.  And by “put up with it,” I mean pull out all sorts of bug zappers, citronella candles and bug spray.  Those ‘skeeters won’t stand a chance!  But speaking of summer insects, can we talk about bees for a moment?  Bees always seem to come around as soon as we sit down to have lunch on the back deck.  They’re incredibly annoying, and (like most people) I don’t particularly enjoy getting stung by a bee.

But bees are disappearing.  Honey bees that is.  I saw a segment on the morning news late last year talking about the dramatic drop in honey bee colonies in both North America and Europe.  Beekeepers have reported that their bee hives are dying off at almost double the normal rate.  Here’s the thing.  Bees are not just good for crops, they’re great for crops.  Without bees doing their pollination work, our crops just won’t grow as well.  It’s part of the whole balance of nature.

Get outside and grill up a batch of these Grilled Coconut Lime Shrimp this weekend!One of our neighbors briefly considered starting a honey bee colony in his yard.  At the time, I thought it was fascinating…but the idea of a whole colony of bees living across the street didn’t excite me much.  I have no idea why honey bees are dying off faster than normal.  But I can assure you that I will think twice about hating on bees that come around when I’m outside grilling.  (However, I will still continue to hate on yellowjackets and wasps.  Those aren’t honey bees.  They don’t pollinate my garden.)

Get outside and grill up a batch of these Grilled Coconut Lime Shrimp this weekend!But back to grilling.  Bees, mosquitoes and other insects are just a side effect of the warmer weather, so I guess I’ll just deal.  This past weekend, I was in the mood to grill.  I grabbed some shrimp from the freezer, and I whipped up a quick lime marinade.  One of the nice things about grilling shrimp is that they cook quickly.  And you don’t want to marinate shrimp too long, either (~15-20 minutes is just fine).

I made an easy lime juice and cilantro marinade for these shrimp, but here’s a fun little trick.  I kept a bit of the marinade aside, and then I brushed it on the shrimp while they grilled.  These Grilled Coconut Lime Shrimp were packed with flavor!  I did add a bit of heat into the brushing sauce, so I whipped up a quick coconut yogurt dipping sauce to balance the extra heat.

Get outside and grill up a batch of these Grilled Coconut Lime Shrimp this weekend!My wife took a taste of the yogurt sauce by itself, and she wasn’t too impressed.  Then she dipped a grilled shrimp in that sauce, and she totally got it then.  The flavors all mesh together and complement each other.  So pull out the grill this coming weekend and make a batch of these Grilled Coconut Lime Shrimp.  And if you see a honey bee go flying by, just give him a little pat on the back.  (Ok, maybe not.  But do stop and appreciate the work that these bees are doing for your garden!)

Get outside and grill up a batch of these Grilled Coconut Lime Shrimp this weekend!

Grilled Coconut Lime Shrimp

Get outside and grill up a batch of these Grilled Coconut Lime Shrimp this week!
Print Pin Rate
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 4 minutes
Marinating Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 34 minutes
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 328kcal

Ingredients

For the Shrimp

For the Coconut Dipping Sauce

  • ½ cup 1 5.3 oz. container plain Greek yogurt
  • 3 Tbsp cream of coconut see note
  • ¼ tsp smoked paprika
  • ¼ tsp salt

Instructions

  • Soak wooden skewers in water for at least 30 minutes.
  • Preheat grill (or grill pan) to medium-high heat.
  • Thread 4-5 shrimp onto each skewer; place shrimp in shallow baking dish. (Tip: Use 2 skewers to prevent shrimp from spinning while grilling.)
  • In a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, olive oil, garlic and cilantro. Remove ⅓ cup of marinade and set aside. Pour remaining marinade over shrimp, turning until well-coated. Let stand at room temperature for 10-15 minutes.
  • Whisk green pepper sauce into the reserved marinade; set mixture aside.
  • Make the Coconut Dipping Sauce by whisking together yogurt, cream of coconut, smoked paprika and salt; set sauce aside.
  • Brush grill with vegetable oil or spray with nonstick grilling spray. Remove shrimp from marinade and place on grill. Grill 2 minutes and then brush with the reserved marinade. Flip and brush with more marinade. Grill for 1-2 more minutes, or until shrimp are pink and fully cooked.
  • Serve hot with Coconut Dipping Sauce.

Notes

This recipe only uses several tablespoons of cream of coconut. Use the leftover to make Pina Coladas!

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43 Comments

  1. I was just telling hubby yesterday that we need to start using the mosquito plugs again. The warmer weather is on it´s way! 🙂 🙂 Love the idea of popping shrimps on a scewer for a bbq. I have to try this!!! Happy week David! 🙂

    1. Yes to the warmer weather! No to the mosquitoes! Shrimp on the grill is such an easy and delicious meal. Here’s to the summer weather, Johlene! 🙂

  2. I used to be scared of bees when I was a kid, but now I love seeing them in the garden. Though, if I see a wasp, I run like crazy; I’m sure wasps chase me! These grilled shrimp look amazing! So light, fresh and perfect for Summertime grilling. Looking forward to trying this one soon 🙂

    1. Oh, I used to be scared of bees, too, Dawn. Heck, I still am! But it does make me happy to know that they are out there doing good things to my garden. These shrimp are indeed perfect for summer grilling. I love that shrimp are such a quick and easy meal on the grill, too!

    1. Haha..oh, man, do I ever need Arizona weather! My wife is from Pennsylvania, and once she moved south she swore she’d never move north again. And then we moved north. I’m going to start a relocation campaign to get us out there to Arizona now…haha! 🙂

  3. That coconut-cream yogurt sauce with those cilantro lime shrimp sounds absolutely delicious, David! Love that you brushed on more of that marinade – talk about a flavor explosion eh?!
    I haven’t seen many honey bees around my yard – what I do have plenty of are carpenter bees, and those things are persistent little fellows! But – wait – y’all sleep with your windows open?! Oooh i gotta program my drone to enter through your open windows and raid y’alls fridge and counter for any baked goods! 🙂
    Happy Monday!

    1. Blah…I totally remember those carpenter bees down south. I think we have them up here, too, but I don’t see them as often. I have seen loads of honey bees out now that our dandelions are coming out…but then again, the dandelions are coming out. Wait. I’m putting a drone blocker on my window! Nice try there, Shashi…or should I call you the Drone Trickster? 🙂

  4. I’m with you on the excitement over warm weather and grilling season! This shrimp sounds SO delicious and flavorful – like a trip to the tropics in your mouth 😀 must try this, especially with that scrumptious sauce!

    1. We finally brought out all of our deck furniture (well, pillows and such) last Friday, Rachel. It was awesome! And hey, if I’m not physically in the tropics, then I can at least pretend to be there with some delicious grilled shrimp, right? 🙂

  5. Hi David! I have had a craving for shrimp lately and coconut and lime couldn’t be more perfect! These along with a nice big salad would make me very happy! One nice thing about where we live is that we don’t have mosquitos, I mean not any! We do have carpenter bees which are not only annoying, they are destructive! Happy summer grilling!

    1. Wait. How in the heck do you live in the south and not have mosquitoes? That’s it. I’m moving to where you are. Seriously! We even get mosquitoes way up here in New York. (Not near as many as when we lived in the south…but they’re still here.) Happy summer grilling right back at ya, Dorothy!

  6. The shrimp with that dipping sauce sounds like a real winner. Thankfully I’ve got my grill on my screened in patio so no worry about bugs. Now as to those yellow jackets and wasps…they are pollinators. When we lived in New Hampshire, I can’t tell you how many I would see in my apple orchard each spring going from blossom to blossom.

    1. Ah, now that’s a professional move right there, Karen. The grill in a screened area. We have a screened in area on our porch, but the grill is out on the non-screened part. It’s ok, though, I can always retreat back to the screened portion when needed. And I had no idea that yellow jackets and wasps are pollinators…I thought they were only around to annoy me! Either that, or they really like apples. Haha!

  7. These grilled shrimp are calling me… yes, all the way over here on the West Coast! Beauties!
    As for the poor bees, who wants them around, BUT we need them, right? I hope they get the problem under control. We need them pollinators! This looks awesome Dave. #WolfpackGrillers

    1. They are indeed calling your name. Kevin….. Kevin….. See, I wasn’t lying! I tried pollinating my lemon tree/bush last year by hand since we kept it on the screened in area. We didn’t get any lemons last year from the bush. Are you surprised? 🙂

    1. Yes, bring on the warm weather, Dawn! I love this time of the year. The winter is solidly behind us (even though we have one random day today where the high is in the 40’s…), and the whole summer is ahead of us. I foresee lots of grilling awesomeness coming soon! 🙂

    1. You’ve got that right, Jess! Now if only I could figure out how to eat these shrimp while in the Caribbean…. haha! 🙂 Hope the weather is getting warmer over there!

  8. “One of our neighbors briefly considered starting a honey bee colony in his yard”

    Get your Queen Bee on and don’t allow that to happen!

    I forgot Robbie was born entering Winter so how exciting to start enjoying the warmer weather!!! I’m also envious he’ll be enjoying meals by the grill king- These look like an epic welcoming meal for Spring.

    1. Queen Bee? Like Beyonce? You’re friends with her, right? 🙂

      Yup, that was the nice thing about when Robbie was born. We hunkered down all winter, and now that he’s getting older we can head out and enjoy the warmer weather. Of course, you won’t see warm weather for like another 2 years. But I promise there is something out there called summer!

  9. I hope no one bee was hurt while you were grilling these delicious shrimp, David! And I think you should consider having some bees (just to help your garden to thrive). Indeed, how could you grow a lavender field without having them, eh? So I’m sending a few hundreds soon (Perhaps, along with some treats). Talking about the dish, I love the flavors going on here! And they look great too – like the perfectly grilled shrimp. Well done!

    1. No bee was hurt in the making of these shrimp, Ben. I should’ve put a disclaimer out there for that one! See, you’re right! You love lavender, and to have lavender you need bees. I think you should start a bee colony. Plus, we all know that honey + lavender is one excellent combination!

  10. I’m all for bringing back the honey bees (away from my grilling area, of course) as long as we can make mosquitoes extinct. There is NO REASON for mosquitoes to live. Ever.
    I’m so excited about being outside again, though. Playground, here we come!
    And amazing grill food, too. With lime. Lime is one of the best parts of summer!

    1. Tell me about it, Mir! Mosquitoes serve no purpose at all. I should do research into the types of things that eat mosquitoes (is it bats?) and then start a sanctuary in my yard for all things anti-mosquito. Of course, we might have a yard full of bats then, but I’ll take it! 🙂

  11. You have warm weather…..we have snow today. SNOW!!! IN APRIL! Everyone is freaking out over here.
    So, if you would like to send some warm weather this way, that would be great. Send some of these shrimp too please, as we just started eating fish again and these are calling my name.

    1. Wait. It snowed there yesterday?? It snowed a ton here in early April…like more snow in April than the rest of the winter combined. But that was weeks ago. It’s almost May now! I’m packing some warm weather up in a box and sending it your way today. I’ll include some grilled shrimp in the care package, too! 🙂

  12. The decline of bees is one of the reasons I have started keeping my own bees. Plus they are so interesting to watch and learn about. Right now I’m all about grilling. These shrimp look marvelous…. But I can’t help singing……put a lime in the coconut… 🙂

    1. I was thinking about this post when I read your story about beekeeping, Kathy. That is so awesome! I kinda want to start my own…but I know Laura would never go for it. Cheers to grilling season…and to getting the lime in the coconut song stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Haha! 🙂

    1. Heck yeah! I love grilling anything and everything…and shrimp is right up there on the list. But take grilled shrimp and add a dipping sauce? That’s where I need to be right about now! 🙂 Thanks, Bianca!

  13. Dude. I love honey and the honey bees should just do their thing away from me. I’m terrified of bees! Wasps and yellow jackets totally get the business end of my tennis racquet bee zaper thing. I leave the honey bees alone with the exception of some running and shouting to leave me alone. Anyhoo – these shrimp look like an awesome flavor combo! Thank goodness it’s spring and grilling season again!

    1. Hahaha…I totally have one of those tennis racket mosquito/wasp/annoying things wacker. It makes for endless hours of fun. But I do leave the nice bees alone. But then again, I don’t go up and give them a hug either. They’re doing good things…but I’m with ya. They can do good things on the other side of the yard. Cheers to grilling season, Rachelle! 🙂

    1. Thank you so much, Tamara! I love how quickly you can grill shrimp, too. Fancy enough for weekend entertaining, but quick enough for easy weeknight dinners. 🙂

  14. I remember the days when you had to think twice about walking barefoot in the grass, because you might step on a honeybee and get stung. Now it’s rare if I ever lay eyes on a honeybee. These shrimp skewers sound like a nice way to welcome in outdoor cooking, David. And btw, I love the new look of your site!

    1. You know, you’re right. I totally remember that when I was a kid. But yeah, now bees are a bit more scarce. Although I did see something on the news the other day about how hotels in large cities are starting to put beehives on their roofs…pretty cool stuff! And thanks for the comment on the site. I wasn’t going to mess with it this week, but it kinda got dropped into my lap so it’s still a work in progress. Have a great weekend, Jeff!

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