Lemon Garlic Shrimp Zucchini Pasta

This lemon garlic shrimp zucchini ‘pasta’ is a fabulous and easy dish to make for a healthy lunch or dinner. Shrimp (or prawns if you will) are pan-fried in the aromatic lemon and garlic olive oil, then tossed through raw zucchini noodles with a generous topping of Parmesan cheese for extra flavour. This recipe is gluten-free, low-carb and keto-friendly and can be made without cheese for Paleo and Whole30 versions.

This zucchini noodle dish is my take on a healthy shrimp scampi, which is usually made with spaghetti and garlic, lemon and butter sauce. While I love butter, I wanted to make this recipe with olive oil. It gets flavoured with lots of garlic and lemon zest, my favourite with shrimp or prawns. Swapping spaghetti with zucchini noodles lowers carbohydrates and boosts nutrients.

As I mentioned in the introduction, you can omit the Parmesan cheese to make this dish Paleo and Whole30 friendly.

What You Need To Make This Shrimp Zucchini ‘Pasta’

Zucchini: I recommend medium to large raw zucchini to make pasta or noodles. You will need a vegetable spiralizer to make noodles, but if you don’t have one, you can use a carrot peeler to make lovely ribbons or even slice the zucchini into thin circles. I usually do two small or one medium/large zucchini per serving, but you can do more for a hungrier tummy. 

Shrimp: I use shrimp and prawns interchangeably as my readers are from so many different countries. In this recipe, you can buy raw, unpeeled prawns or shrimp or frozen.

Good olive oil is always essential as it will provide a lot of flavour and nutrients, of course. Then it’s just garlic, lemon and Parmesan, plus salt and pepper for seasoning. Easy peasy!

Using Frozen Shrimp

To speed things up and keep it affordable, I often buy peeled, frozen shrimp. I have a bag in the freezer most of the time as I like it in a lunch salad or a quick prawn and cauliflower rice or a stir-fry. To defrost, I place frozen shrimp in a bowl of hot water and it’s usually ready to use in about 10 minutes. You can also defrost overnight in the fridge (if you’re organised enough…I am not!).

How To Make Lemon Garlic Shrimp Zucchini Pasta

Step 1.  Spiralize or peel the zucchini into noodles or ribbons to create our low-carb, gluten-free pasta alternative. Peel the prawns if needed. Zest 1/2 of the lemon and slice the garlic. Shave/grate Parmesan cheese. The dish comes together quickly, so have everything ready to go.

Step 2. Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the olive oil, garlic and lemon zest and turn the heat down to low. Sauté for about a minute until garlic starts to get fragrant. At this stage, add the prawns and turn the heat back to medium. Cook for a minute and a half, then stir through and cook for another minute. 

Step 3. Zucchini noodles don’t need much cooking. Add the zucchini noodles to the pan, drizzle with the juice of 1/2 lemon and season with a good pinch of salt and pepper (about 1/4 teaspoon salt or so). Stir and heat through the garlic, lemon and shrimp olive oil until hot. Sprinkle with half of the Parmesan and stir through in the pan. 

Transfer to a plate or a bowl and top with the remaining cheese. You can drizzle a little more olive oil on top.

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