(Please excuse the terrible photo. It’s hard to get good lighting when it gets dark at 5 pm!)

We are only days away from the holidays! It’s my absolute favorite time of year. I love decorating the house, listening to Christmas music and, most importantly, cooking for the people I love!

I’m a hostess at heart and I love having my family and friends over all year long. But there’s just something so special about gathering together during the holiday season. It’s no surprise that some of my favorite traditions involve the food we eat at Christmas. Our family always does breakfast/brunch food for Christmas, no matter what time of day we celebrate. That means lots of cheese, carbs, and some sweet treats to balance everything out. 😉

With all the heavy foods that we eat around the holidays (you know you do it too!), I thought I would whip up something light and fresh.

Enter chimichurri shrimp and herbed couscous. It’s deliciously light, bright, and has a little kick! The beauty of this recipe is that the same herbs are used in both the chimichurri sauce and the couscous. You’ll also use the juice of 1/2 lemon on the shrimp and the other half will be used in the couscous. Waste not, want not!

I served this dish up with some roasted vegetables for a complete meal.

The recipe makes more chimichurri sauce than you will probably need for the shrimp. It is absolutely delicious on basically any type of meat and stores well in the refrigerator for a couple of days, so be sure to save any leftover sauce for future meals!

I hope each of you enjoy Christmas with your families, friends, framilies… whoever you celebrate with! Merry Christmas from my home to yours.

Roasted Chimichurri Shrimp with Herbed Couscous

Serves 4

For the chimichurri:

Ingredients

1/2 bunch parsley

1/2 bunch cilantro

1 shallot, roughly chopped

3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

1 Fresno chili or red jalapeño, seeds and stems removed, roughly chopped

2 tbsp fresh oregano leaves

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1 tsp salt, plus more to taste

1/2 cup olive oil

Directions:

1. In a small food processor, combine first 8 ingredients until herbs are finely chopped.

2. Stream in olive oil. Add more salt if necessary.

For the shrimp:

Ingredients:

1 lb medium peeled, deveined shrimp, tails removed*

1 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp chimichurri sauce

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Cover a baking sheet with foil.

2. In a bowl, toss shrimp, olive oil, chimichurri, paprika, salt and pepper until well combined.

3. Spread shrimp on baking sheet and roast for 5-6 minutes, or until shrimp are pink.

4. Remove shrimp from oven and top with juice of 1/2 lemon and additional chimichurri sauce.

*To remove shrimp tails, simply pinch where the tail meets the shrimp and pull. You may also leave them on if desired.

For the herbed couscous:

Ingredients:

1 cup pearled couscous

1 1/4 cup chicken broth

1 shallot, finely diced

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

2 tbsp cilantro, finely chopped

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions:

1. In a medium sized saucepan, heat butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add shallots and sauté about 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

2. Add couscous and sauté until lightly browned, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. (Be careful not to burn it!)

3. Add chicken broth and salt to couscous. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 8-10 minutes, or until all liquid has absorbed.

4. Once couscous is done, stir in parsley, cilantro, and juice of 1/2 lemon.

Serve the shrimp, couscous and chimichurri together. Enjoy!