Zucchini Shrimp Scampi
Traditional shrimp scampi made into a low-carb dish with zucchini noodles. It’s unbelievably easy, quick & healthy! 214.3 calories.
I know I’m late to the party but I finally invested in a spiralizer. And I have to say – it’s really the best $15 I’ve ever spent.
Now if you don’t know what a spiralizer is, it’s basically a vegetable slicer, cutting super-thin strips resembling spaghetti strands, creating a healthier, grain-free alternative to standard pasta.
The texture is amazingly tender with a little bit of bite, and I just love how you can twirl it up like pasta. And it goes beautifully in this buttery, garlicky shrimp scampi with all that vibrant lemon goodness.
Best of all, I don’t have to feel guilty about eating this at all!
Zucchini Shrimp Scampi
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more, to taste
- ¼ cup chicken stock
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 ½ pounds 4 medium-sized zucchini, spiralized
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add shrimp, garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until pink, about 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in chicken stock and lemon juice; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a simmer; stir in zucchini noodles until well combined, about 1-2 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with Parmesan and parsley, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Love this!!! I don’t have a spiralizer… so I grated my zucchini long ways… worked great! (I will be buying a spiralizer though)
Tasted DIVINE!!!!
Thanks!
Is it possible to add pesto sauce to this recipe and still have it turn out?? Sounds like a good punch of flavor..
That sounds like a great addition! But without further recipe testing, I cannot say with certainty how the end result will be. Please use your best judgment.
how did the pesto work
I had such high hopes for this, but mine didn’t turn out. I’m wondering if the zucchini cooked too long – I got distracted by my kids! My family agreed that the cooked zucchini plus the lemon juice gave it a “pickled” taste. Did anyone else notice this? Or just us? 🙂
It certainly shouldn’t have a “pickled” taste – perhaps the lemon you used had spoiled?
Did you use pre-made noodles or really old zucchini? I once used beet noodles bought from a store in an airtight package that ended up being older than I thought when I got around to using them in a recipe and the beets had pickled themselves. (It made the dish I was making quite inedible – pickled veggies don’t substitute nicely for fresh.) Maybe the same thing can happen with zucchini noodles?
This looks amazing!!! As a zucchini noodle virgin, do I have to cook the zucchini before hand, or just follow the recipe as is and put the raw zucchini in the pan?
Nope – there’s no need to cook the zucchini beforehand.
This was amazing, we just made this tonight! Thanks for all your great recipes for healthy meals, I really appreciate the nutrition information and simplicity of the meals!
This was sooo amazingly good. I cut the recipe in half because I only needed the one serving for myself. Boy that was a mistake will be making this again very soon.
I actually have a Vegetti. I tried this and it was so good. I made a zucchini with a
Thai peanut sauce last month.
I made this last night and it was FANTASTIC. I even convinced my toddler to eat this dish – no small feat! Thanks for gifting the world this delicious recipe and for inspiring me to actually use my spiralizer.
I’ve just started cooked seafood again, and this looks amazing! And luckily, I got a spiralizer as a gift: BEST GIFT EVER!
I just invested in a spiralizer too. I can’t wait to make this one!
We bought a spiralizer because of your suggestion. Works great! This receive was so quick and easy and FABULOUS. I am going to use the zoodles for turkey meatballs and marinara sauce next. Finally, a healthy alternative to carby noodles!
Thank you!! Another great low calorie recipe!
Great way to start 2015!
This was awesome!! I may or may not have eaten the entire thing by myself in one sitting…..and considering it’s almost all veggies and fish, that doesn’t even bother me, haha. Great flavors! We got a vegetti for Christmas and this was my first time to use it. I loved the zucchini noodles, but a word of wisdom to first-time users: be sure to break up your zucchini strings every couple of twists unless you want your end dish to be 10 extremely long noodles! I wish I had broken mine up a little more – most of mine were so long it was hard to mix them into the sauce. Other than that, this was a wonderful recipe I’ll definitely be making again (and maybe next time I’ll share some…we’ll see).
You can also just make a cut down the vegetable before you spiralize it.
Wow! This is a keeper. It’s just me, one zucchini, so I just quickly cut it into thin sticks. The protein could certainly be anything. Or the zucchini could be served by itself. What a deceptively great and simple recipe. Thanks for posting!
We have a winner here. I did make of couple of modifications, lots more garlic, 1/2 of a vinegar pepper diced, and white wine in place of the stock. Finished with about 3TBS of butter, and wow…kids were literally eating it up…went through half a loaf of sour dough sopping up the sauce.
Next time I’m thinking of making Zucchini ribbons (and carrots) with a vegetable peeler, just to give them more body.
Could I substitute coconut oil for the butter?
Thank you!
You can certainly try substituting coconut oil but without further recipe testing, I cannot speak for how much this will change the overall taste/texture of the dish. It is always best to use the ingredients listed in the recipe to obtain the best results possible.
We made this tonight and it was fantastic!
I don’t have a spiralizer, but I used the julienne setting on a mandolin slicer and it worked great.
I used my mandolin on the zucchini and it worked beautifully. Thanks for the idea.
Looks so good!! I love the zucchini!
I have been very skeptical about trying zucchini noodles. I need to take a risk and give it a try. It certainly looks tasty!
even my boyfriend likes the zoodles. there are also yellow zucchini, interesting!
Woo hoo a delicious looking recipe I can enjoy whilst i’m dieting. I could have this for lunch AND dinner on a 5:2 day 🙂