Cajun Shrimp and Avocado Pinwheels

January 14, 2020 by Nicole Collins

We're hosting a guest today!

Today, we're being fed by my dear friend and coworker, Kathy!

Kathy is totally my food buddy at work. She's always talking about cooking the most amazing things. And, she's such a great cook! I basically turn into an obsessed fool over whatever food she makes for a work party (or just because), and I'm definitely not alone.

Some people were just born to feed people, and Kathy is one of those people. She's up all hours of the day and night cooking for her loved ones every day, and she absolutely loves it. When we have a potluck for work, she'll sign up to bring one thing but usually end up bringing us 3 or 4 delicious things. Food is in her blood, and it's such an inspiring thing to witness.

Today's recipe is one of the many delicious things that she's made for us at work that everyone was totally drooling over. And bonus, it's easy, fun, healthy, and totally delectable!

And let's be honest, that's all anybody really cares about when it comes to food.

So today, we're making Cajun Shrimp and Avocado Pinwheels!

These pinwheels have A LOT happening. There's so many components and textures and colors and flavors. We're cramming a lot into one little bite!

Now, I made a couple baby tweaks to Kathy's original recipe. But for the most part, this is all her.

We start by seasoning some shrimp with cajun seasoning and roasting them in the oven. When they're finished cooking, we're going to chop them into bite sized pieces then wait for them to cool completely. We don't want to add warm shrimp to an otherwise cold wrap.

Meanwhile, we can make our cream cheese spread/pinwheel glue. You guys know I love using whipped cream cheese, because it's naturally softened. So, that's the base for our spread. To that, we add 1 clove of garlic and a pinch of cayenne pepper for some extra kick. We're going to grate the garlic on a microplane so that it takes on a paste like texture. That will help the garlic evenly distribute through our spread without us having to bite down on a chunk of raw garlic.

From here, we're ready to layer! Fresh torn spinach, sliced roasted red peppers, and creamy avocado get spread on top of an extra large spinach tortilla that's been schmeared with our cream cheese mix. And, we can't forget our shrimp! The hardest part about making these overstuffed pinwheels is rolling them tightly enough so that everything stays right in place. And, that's really not that hard at all.

After we roll up our wraps, we're going to let them set in the fridge for a couple of hours before we slice them into 1 inch pinwheel slices. That's it!

These wraps are spicy and cool all at the same time. The cajun and cayenne add a nice kick while the cream cheese and avocado cool everything back down.

And bonus, we can make a cool and spicy dipping sauce to serve alongside these that just brings a whole other layer of flavor! The dip is simple...mix prepared ranch dip and hot sauce. Dip done!

These pinwheels are best served fresh, and they certainly make a lot. So, if you're making these for yourself for a healthy lunch instead of as a party bite, just store the components separately in the fridge; and assemble the wraps up to the night before you want to serve. I wouldn't make them ahead much earlier than that though.

We all know avocado can be a fickle fella.

Ok everyone! Send Kathy some love over when you make these, so we can tell her how amazing she is!

I know you'll love these as much as we all do. So, let's eat!

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Cajun Shrimp and Avocado Pinwheels

Serves: 24 pinwheels Print

Ingredients:

For the Shrimp:

• 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined (thawed if frozen)

• 1 ½ tsp cajun seasoning

• ¼ tsp salt

• olive oil cooking spray

For the Pinwheels:

• 8 oz whipped cream cheese

• 1 clove garlic, grated

• ¼ tsp cayenne

• 1 jar (7 oz) fire roasted red peppers, drained well and diced

• 1 avocado, sliced

• 1 cup fresh spinach, packed

• 3 large spinach herb tortillas

For the Dipping Sauce:

• 1 cup prepared ranch dip (I use Hidden Valley Ranch mix)

• 1 tbsp Franks Red Hot

Directions:

1. Roast the Shrimp: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with foil, and spray with cooking spray. Arrange shrimp on the pan, and spritz the tops with cooking spray. Add cajun seasoning and salt, and toss to coat the shrimp. Roast for 8-10 mins until the shrimp are opaque and fully cooked through. When completely cooled, chop the shrimp.

2. Make the Dipping Sauce: In a mixing bowl, combine ranch dip and hot sauce. Set aside in the fridge.

3. Assemble the Wraps: In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, grated garlic, and cayenne. Spread the cream cheese mix all over the surface of the tortillas. Top the cream cheese with spinach, red pepper, avocado, and chopped shrimp, dividing evenly between the three wraps. Starting at the end closest to you, tightly roll the tortilla like a sushi roll. Wrap each roll individually in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours until set.

4. Remove wraps from plastic wrap. Cut wraps into 1 inch slices (about 8 slices per wrap). Serve immediately with dipping sauce.

Recipe notes:

*Recipe adapted from Kathy Gerber's original recipe.

*It's important that all of your ingredients are cold before you wrap them in the tortillas. You don't want them to sweat or steam in the wrap which will make things wet inside.

*Grating the garlic for the cream cheese spread helps to eliminate chomping down on chunks of garlic in the pinwheels. It also helps to distribute the garlic through the cream cheese more evenly.

*The ranch dip mix that I reference for the dip refers to the packet of ranch dip mix that you mix with sour cream. We need 1 cup of the prepared dip for this recipe.