Grilled Shrimp, Orange, and Watermelon Salad with Peppered Peanuts in a Zesty Citrus Dressing

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This salad has too many competing flavours, was cumbersome to prepare and is way too acidic. It took me over an hour and a half to fix two plates for my husband and I. I think this salad will work better with the following modifications:
1 - eliminate the step of peppering and roasting the dry roasted peanuts, their flavour was harsh and they would have been fine to use as is;
2 - use mandarin orange segments instead of the sliced orange or segment the orange. The orange slices did not contrast enough with watermelon and looked messy;
3 - add cream to the dressing to cut the acidity or mix some of the dressing in the recipe with a ranch type dressing;
4 - reduce basil and cilantro amounts somewhat - I personally love both herbs, but they are very dominant on top of the greens and may be too overpowering to some tastes and conflicted with the other many flavours in the salad.
I will keep this recipe in my files to possibly serve on a large platter for company, but as an everyday dinner salad it was too time consuming to prepare and the large number of ingredients crowded the plates.
Overall both my husband and I were surprised that this salad was a $100,000 competition winner.

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"Delicious & Tasty Salad" Will definitely make it again. Not difficult but takes some time.

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This recipe came out perfect. It's very light and fresh tasting. Would be perfect for the summer.

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A great to get my husband to eat more healthy- he loved it and so did I. I can see why she got the $100K- the dressing was fabulous.

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I served this on an enormous platter as the salad component for a dinner. It looked sumptuous and my guests loved it. The only change I made was to put sauce on the shrimp to marinate and then I added 1 T of honey to mellow the sauce and give it a better sticking quality for the lettuce, etc. It would be a magnificent luncheon meal with some interesting crackers or flat bread.

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The ingredients blended quite well---the aromatic herbs were not overpowering (but I do love all types of herbs!, the dressing was tasty (don't be alarmed by using hoisin sauce, since the sauce can be eaten uncooked---such as when it is used as a side dip for Vietnamese "pho" dishes, the watermelon was refreshing, and the shrimp was flavorful.

When making the dish, I decided to roast the crushed peanuts in a pan over the stove for convenience sake. I also used only 1/2 cup of edamame because I did not want it to compete against the oranges and watermelon; both fruits were cut into bite-size pieces. In addition, I arranged the complete salad prior to cooking and removing the shrimp, which I wanted to serve hot to contrast against the cool vegetables and fruit.

Overall, the salad was pleasant and creative with its different vegetables, fruits, textures, temperatures, and East-meets-West feel.

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I was a bit concerned that my husband would not eat this. He is a pretty picky eater and just recently has been trying to eat better. He doesn't like much that is green, except iceberg lettuce, usually. Surprisingly, he enjoyed this, including the dressing. He thought there were a few too many soy beans but enjoyed the salad as a whole. We will make this again, reduce the amount of beans and cut the oranges smaller. I did everything according to the recipe, except I cooked the shrimp in the shell and then peeled them, including the tails and put them on the salad individually, instead of on the skewer.

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using the uncooked hoisen sauce(along with the other ingredients in the citrus dressing was puzzling>>usually this sauce isn't eaten uncooked in some sort of way...and the cilantro was overpowering(personally i don't like cilantro and would leave it out the next time...yet, overally the flavors balanced and i would probably make it next time.