Freaking Fast Sautéed Shrimp with Zucchini
This sautéed shrimp with zucchini showcases natural sweetness of shrimps and zucchini. The addition of garlic and lemon juice makes the dish flavorful and delicious. It is a quick and easy one-pan meal for busy days.
Zucchini is my favorite summer squash. This sautéed shrimp dish is a great way to use zucchini in stir-fries. Besides, it’s such a great dish for busy weeknights because:
- Few and simple ingredients: you need shrimp, zucchini, garlic, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper – only 7 ingredients. Two optional ingredients to enhance the flavor are parsley and butter.
- One pan meal: you only need to use one pan to cook it.
- It’s easy to make and it takes 15 minutes to prep and cook. Yes, very fast! You can see how quick and easy it is to cook the dish in the video below.
- It’s delicious with the natural sweetness of shrimp and zucchini.
Shrimp cooks really fast and goes well with a lot of vegetables in stir-fries. That’s why I usually have some shrimp in the freezer for those busy nights in the week.
Recipe Video
How to Make Sautéed Shrimp with Zucchini
This sautéed shrimp with zucchini comes together very quickly so it’s best to have all ingredients ready before cooking.
My recommendation is to roll-cut the zucchini to match the thickness of the shrimp. That way, the zucchini soaks up the flavor better while retaining a crisp texture. Roll-cutting is a great technique to prep cylindrical vegetables for stir-fries and stews. In stir-fries particularly, the way you slice vegetables can sometimes enhance both their presentation and how well they absorb flavors. Another example is this stir-fried green beans with beef recipe, in which I slice the green beans on a sharp diagonal.
If roll-cutting sounds like too much work, just cutting the zucchinis into regular thin slices is fine too. Simply slice in half lengthwise and then slice thinly.
In this dish as well as in many other stir-fries, we cook the protein and the vegetables separately. After that, we sauté shrimp, zucchini, and garlic together to add that garlicky flavor. Before finishing, we add lemon juice to brighten the dish. Finally, throw in butter and parsley (if using) with plenty of black pepper.
I’d love to hear what you think about the dish, so please feel free to leave a comment. New recipes are added every week so let’s connect on Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest and Instagram for the latest updates.
Sautéed Shrimp with Zucchini
Ingredients
- 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 teaspoon salt, divided
- black pepper
- 2 medium to large zucchinis (about 12 oz)
- olive oil
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon butter, optional
- 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice (about half a lemon)
- finely chopped parsley, optional (or other herbs)
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, add shrimp, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and plenty of black pepper. Mix thoroughly.
- Roll-cut zucchinis to match the thickness of the shrimp. Also prep all other ingredients.
- Place a pan over medium-medium high heat. When pan is hot, add oil and then add shrimp in one layer and let them cook undisturbed for a minute. Flip and cook the other side until develop nice colors and shrimps are almost cooked through. Transfer to a plate.
- To the same pan, add a little more olive oil and then add zucchini. Sauté, stir frequently for a couple of minutes and add 3/4 teaspoon of salt and pepper (or to taste).
- Add shrimp back to the pan, and add garlic. Mix and sauté briefly until garlic is fragrant. If using butter, add it now and mix until butter is melted.
- When everything is cooked through, pour lemon juice over. Give everything a quick toss to combine and then transfer to a serving bowl. Sprinkle parsley and serve hot immediately.
Video
Nutrition
Note: The recipe was originally published on May 22th, 2017. It was updated on July 17th, 2018 with better photos and step-by-step instructions. The photo below is the old one I took and you can see that it doesn’t do a good job of portraying this dish :).
Fab recipe. I added thinly sliced red pepper, and a 1/4 cup green onion.
Best recipe – my husband LOVES this recipe. Smells so good cooking. Very easy and healthy. Will make this again and again! Thank you for this recipe.
That is so great to hear! Thank you for your comment! I just made it again last week and yes, it did smell great.
We have just started getting zucchini from the garden and I bought shrimp today. Found your recipe, it was great! So simple but so good. I tried to give 5 stars but my phone wouldn’t let me. New subscriber!
Thank you so much for letting me know how much you enjoyed my shrimp with zucchini recipe! We live in an apartment now so I can’t get into planting vegetables, but we’ve managed to add a lot of houseplants, succulents and some flowers to our balcony garden this summer :).
This was delicious! I used wild shrimp from Argentina and zucchini from our garden. For the garlic, I chose Black garlic from Connors farm Woodstock NB.
I’m glad it turned out delicious for you. I wish I could plant some vegetables in my balcony garden. My in-laws often send us some homemade black garlic but I haven’t tried cooking with it. They tell us to eat it as is to improve our immune system. Did you just sauté it like regular garlic?