Lemon Garlic Shrimp Zoodles
An easy fast dinner to make, just assemble a few ingredients and serve up hot. The only work is some minor slicing and mincing, and making zucchini zoodles. You don’t need an expensive piece of equipment to do this, and it doesn’t take long. I use an Oxo hand held spiralizer, pictured below (I have no affiliate relationship) which works well. I don’t recommend buying pre-made packaged zucchini noodles, which I have seen for sale in supermarkets. They lose flavor, nutrients, and moisture when packaged this way, and your dish won’t taste as vibrant, but can work in a pinch if need be. This recipe gives each person 5 pieces of jumbo shrimp and plenty of zoodles. I also love to use sweet mini-peppers in bright orange and yellow colors, but regular size peppers can work fine too. Julienne slicing works best to help peppers cook quickly and release their sweetness, rather than large chunks of pepper, which end up competing with the big delicious bites of shrimp for texture. Last tip: It’s easy to overcook zoodles, or to make your frozen cooked shrimp tough by cooking too long. Err on the side of undercooking everything. If you have to as a last step, toss your skillet contents for a few extra turns, cover, and let everything heat through a bit more. The zoodles should have a mild crunch to them, rather than be entirely cooked to soft limp texture.
- 3 TBSP ghee
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 scallions, chopped fine
- 4 orange & yellow mini peppers julienned
- 2 medium (8-9") zucchini or 3-4 small zucchini
- 20 pieces frozen cooked jumbo shrimp
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (not garlic salt)
- 2 TBSP grated lemon zest
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 lemon cut into quarters (four chunks), seeds removed
- a few grinds salt
- Use a zucchini noodle maker and make noodles (zoodles) out of the zucchini. Set the zoodles aside in a separate bowl til ready to toss in skillet. Before cutting lemon into quarters, use a grater to grate zest. Set this aside too.
- In a large skillet, melt olive oil and ghee together over medium heat. Add minced garlic and heat gently til just starting to soften.
- Add julienned peppers next. Increase to medium high heat. Stir quickly for a minute, coating peppers and garlic generously with oil and melted ghee. Cover for one minute and let it heat through.
- Next add thawed, rinsed, and peeled shrimp, in whole jumbo pieces. Sprinkle lemon zest throughout; squeeze the chunks of lemon over the skillet, so juice drizzles in. Quickly drop lemon chunks in and toss everything to coat with ghee and oil. Keep heat medium to medium high, but don't allow burning. Cover and allow to heat through for one minute.
- Next, toss in zoodles, and combine briskly so all skillet contents are coated with ghee and oil. Work quickly to avoid overcooking the zoodles, which will cause them to release too much water and become limp. Then add garlic powder, cilantro and scallions, and toss again thoroughly to coat everything. Let sit covered for one more minute.
- Once everything is hot and zoodles have a slight crunch left in them, toss once more and serve immediately in to generous pasta bowls.