Bulgur salad with grilled shrimp

We're always looking for new things to try, especially things that are fresh, include grilling, and/or can help us fill in our vegetarian menu collection. While this is not a strictly vegetarian meal, it at least fits the "eating less red meat" bill for us at least. Plus shrimp is one of Calvin's favorite foods, so this is bound to become a summer favorite around here. It was pretty yummy.

Bulgur Salad with Grilled Shrimp (from Healthy Cooking, by Taste of Home)

• 1 cup bulgur
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and chopped
• 8 pieces green onions, chopped
• 1 cup fresh parsley, minced
• 1/4 cup fresh mint, minced
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 1-2 tsp fresh gingerroot, minced
• 1-2 tsp coriander, ground
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 1/4 lbs shrimp, cooked, peeled, deveined

Place the bulgur in a medium bowl, add boiling water, stir, then cover and let stand for 30 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed; drain if necessary. Add cucumber, onions, parsley, and mint. In a small bowl, whisk the lemon juice, oil, ginger, coriander, salt and pepper. Pour over bulgur mixture and toss to coat. Transfer to a serving bowl and chill.

For the shrimp, the recipe just called for grilled shrimp. We bought fresh frozen (hilarious) shrimp, already shelled and deveined (who wants to do that part anyhow?), and thawed it in the refrigerator. Before grilling I sprinked the shrimp with some paprik and salt and a spritz of lemon juice, then placed them on skewers. We grilled them over medium hot coals (organic wood charcoal) for 1-2 minutes per side, which meant cooked through and slightly blackening on the outsides.

Serve shrimp hot and salad cold. Now, I have seen recipes that call for topping with fresh mint leaves, mixing some feta, or serving over a bed of baby arugula (Bobby Flay in particular has a very similar recipe with some extra finishing touches that look devine), so we'll probably play with this a bit in the future.