Recipe: Easy Gluten-Free Shrimp Marinade

There are many more bottled gluten-free marinades at the store than there were five years ago, but you can save a lot of money by making your own. The other day I needed something to use on some shrimp we planned to grill. I checked the pantry and fridge for available ingredients and whipped up something that was tasty and super easy to make.

Though we’ve only tried this marinade on shrimp so far, I think it will work with a nice mild white fish like tilapia as well as chicken. I named it garlic and wine marinade.

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup white cooking wine (I use Publix brand)
• 1 ½ t. crushed garlic (in oil)
• 3 T. olive oil
• 2 t. lemon juice
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste

Directions:

• Combine all ingredients in large Ziplock type bag.
• Place shrimp in bag and massage shrimp so everything is coated.
• Refrigerate bag of shrimp for 1-2 hours.
• To grill the shrimp, put them on skewers and cook for approximately three minutes on each side.
• To sauté the shrimp, you don’t need to use oil in the pan due to the amount of oil in the marinade. Heat pan to medium high heat and cook on each side for approximately three minutes.
• Shrimp are cooked when firm and pink.

To use the marinade for fish, I’d put the filets in a shallow baking dish, pour marinade over the fish, cover with plastic wrap and put into refrigerator. Next time I might try adding some capers to the mixture as well. I love lemon and capers and seafood together, but would only use capers for the pan cooking method.

Using simple marinades is an easy way to spruce up a mid-week meal without going to a lot of trouble or much expense. Good marinades almost always take whatever you’re using them on to a whole new level of great taste. This is true for chicken, fish, pork and shrimp. With just a little bit of effort and a few ingredients you already have on hand, you can create some pretty fabulous gluten-free marinades.

If you’re not in the mood to create your own marinade, check out some of these recipes on Food.com. Just remember to use all gluten-free ingredients, as always. If beer is called for in a recipe, use Bard’s Tale or Redbridge as a substitute. Gluten-free soy and Teriyaki sauces can be used instead of the types that contain gluten. Most marinades don’t call for flour, but if you run across one that does, use a gluten-free flour blend, plain rice flour or tapioca starch instead. We’ve got almost two months of good grilling weather left in our area. I’m looking forward to making some more tasty marinades before it’s time to do all the cooking inside for a while.