If you had the chance to play Iron Chef and had a mystery basket of ingredients in front of you… what would you do with tapioca flour, shrimp, and fresh leaves and vegetables? Well, I went for native Indian and African-influenced shrimp tapioca crepes (or as we’d say in Portuguese, tapioca com camarão no dendê). 🙂
If you have never tried your hand at making tapioca crepes/tacos, I suggest that you don’t think twice. I am not kidding, all you have to do is mix together tapioca flour, water, and salt… and then sift the mixture over a heated non-stick skillet. In less than one minute, you have a tapioca crepe ready to fill with whatever filling you wish.
If you feel like it, you can also play around with the flour… like my daughter did! 🙂
In my case, I took the large shrimp that I had around, sautéed in oil and garlic, seasoned, and then sprinkled with lime juice and a drizzle of palm oil.
To complete the dish, I filled the tapioca crepes with mixed leaves and shredded purple cabbage, cherry tomatoes, herbs… and the sautéed shrimp, creating a complete, quick, and gluten-free dish.
Although popular in the entire country, tapioca crepes are a traditional dish from the Northeastern region of Brazil with native Indian origins. They are commonly served for breakfast, afternoon snacks, or as a dessert, depending on the filling. Since our shrimp tapioca crepes are a complete meal, they can be served for lunch or dinner. The filling I chose is more of a contemporary take on one of my favorite Afro-Brazilian Bahian dishes. These crepes are best accompanied by lime wedges and your favorite beer or soda.
Yes, our shrimp tapioca crepes are a healthy dish, but are not quite low-cal. When I have them, I think: “Just eat and be happy!” And I say the same to you…
… and hopefully you’ll enjoy these shrimp tapioca crepes as much as I did, without feeling guilty! 😉
Shrimp Tapioca Crepes
Ingredients
- Tapioca crepes
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1-2 tablespoon minced garlic cloves
- 12 large shrimps raw, fresh or thawed, shelled and deveined
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch ground black pepper
- 1 pinch ground cumin
- Juice of 1/2 lime plus 4 lime wedges to serve with crepes
- 2 tablespoons palm oil optional
- 1 cup Mixed leaves
- 1/4 cup shredded purple cabbage optional
- 4 cherry tomatoes halved
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro or parsley
Instructions
-
Prepare the tapioca crepes according to the directions in the RECIPE. Please, double the tapioca crepe recipe in order to prepare 4 crepes. When they are ready, spread only a bit of salted butter on top.
-
To prepare the shrimp, pat them dry and reserve. Heat the oil in a large, non-stick skillet over medium heat and cook the garlic for about 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and let cook until color changes to a light pink, about 2-3 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and cumin, swirling the pan to combine. Then, add the lime juice and then the palm oil, if desired, swirling/stirring until incorporated. Remove skillet from the heat.
-
Place tapioca crepes on a serving plate/ paper basket, top each with about 1/4 cup of mixed leaves and about 1 Tablespoon of shredded purple cabbage per crepe if desired. Top with 2 cherry tomato halves as well as 3 sautéed shrimp per crepe. Sprinkle a bit of cilantro or parsley on top of each and serve immediately while still warm. Serve shrimp tapioca crepes with a wedge of lime to squeeze over the filling, along with your favorite beer, or guaraná soda (or Ginger Ale). Enjoy!
Shrimp is a favorite of mine! These tapioca crepes would make a wonderful summer dinner! Thank you for the inspiration Denise.
Oh….I love shrimps..!!!
Mmmm, looks like a variation on ‘Shrimp Tacos’- this looks quite unique and delicious- something I haven’t heard of before!
The photos of playing with flour look amazing! These crepes look absolutely delicious as well!
Denise – I love those photos playing with flour – amazing! And these tapioca crepes sound amazing – love the flavorful shrimp and cabbage filling! Simply delicious!
You always teach me something new Denise! I never heard of tapioca crepes but they look wonderful!
Sounds like a divine meal to me! Thanks for sharing another Brazilian recipe with us!!!
I soooooooo wish I lived closer to you. Wow, your food really is amazing, I love prawns (shrimp), especially loving the sound of this dish. Looks vibrant and fresh and healthy. I want it in my belly now. 🙂 Seriously, your blog posts are amazing, my ‘must make’ menu has at least 15 of your recipes on it. YARM!
Simple and delicious crepes Denise!
We recently discovered some tapioca flour in a deli/gourmet super market here in the north of Athens so you just gave as a fantastic recipe to try it!
Summer is a fantastic season for seafood (we’ll be publishing our new olives and octopus recipe in the next days ourselves) so this will be tested very very soon:):):)
Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful Brazilian culture with all of us!
Lots of hugs!
Panos and Mirella
xoxoxoxo
Thanks a lot, my friends! If you click on link recipe for tapioca crepes, you see detailed pictures of how to make them and what they suppose to look like. They are pretty versatile since they can be filled with both savory and sweet fillings, and served for breakfast, lunch/dinner, snack or dessert depending on the filling. I hope you guys enjoy them! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. Sending you hugs from Texas.
Really creative dish! And sounds so tasty. I love shrimp! Love your photos, too — really good. Thanks so much for this.
I wish to try making tapioca soon, seems fun and easy to make and the filling .. oh so delicious
What a a gorgeous meal, Denise! I am pretty sure it tastes just as it looks! I am so glad I could find topioca flour in Kinshasa! This will definitely be on my to do list!
Denise, once I was dining at a Brazilian restaurant and they served round rolls, I don’t remember the name of the bread! All they said that it was made of topioca flour! I hope you do have a recipe for that tasty bread! Thank you in advance! Have a great weekend!!
Hi, Hadia! Thank you! Yes, I have the recipe. It is called “pão de queijo” (Brazilian cheese rolls). It can be made with either tapioca flour or sour starch (a course, fermented tapioca flour popular in Brazil which is also a derivative of cassava — the same root the produce tapioca flour). If you use our search bar (on the side of my pages) you will find in one post both the traditional and quick recipes, in other something with a Mediterranean flair, and also waffles made with tapioca flour and cheese. 🙂 I’ll be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Enjoy!
Absolutely loving this recipes and your pictures here.
I’ve always wondered about those ingredients and Iron Chef..how very interesting right?!
Haven’t used tapioca flour in a while, I have to make this.
Hugs.