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Quick Shrimp Pesto Zoodles is a healthy, fast dinner recipe made with fresh zucchini noodles. It’s so incredibly tasty you won’t even miss the pasta!
Quick Shrimp Pesto Zoodles
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m currently on a healthy eating kick. During the week, I’m so busy, as everyone else is, and I need something healthy, tasty and most importantly quick!
This is a dish I normally have prepped and ready to go! I’ll make a batch of my Vegan Pistachio Pesto and have that stored in the fridge. I’ll also make a few nights worth of fresh zucchini noodles, or zoodles, as everyone now calls them. For the shrimp, I’ll either cook a few nights worth, or buy a bag of frozen precooked small shrimp.
To make the zoodles, I use my Veggetti Spiral Vegetable Slicer, and it works well. I bought this to try it out since I didn’t really know if I would like the zoodles or not. Now that I know I love them, I’m planning to upgrade to an electric model like this one.
Tips for Making Zoodles
I’ve found zoodles in the grocery store in the freezer section, and “fresh” in the produce section. I’ve tried both, and neither come close to just making them yourselves. The texture and flavor are just better when you do it yourself. The frozen ones almost seem mushy and watery, and the ones in the produce aisle seem dried out.
When I make the zoodles, I make sure the zucchini is really clean and then I chop off the ends. The spiralizer comes with a top that has little spikes to stab into the zucchini. I find that this is difficult to use until you get the zucchini down to the bottom, so skip that at the start.
The spiralizer has two sides. One is for thin noodles and the other is for thicker noodles. I like the thicker noodles since they seem to hold up better when cooking, but that’s just my preference.
So really, all you do is put the zucchini in one side and push down and turn at the same time. As you’re going along, go ahead and cut off the noodles here and there, or you’ll end up with really long unmanageable zoodles.
After the zoodles are made, I like to salt them and let them sit in a strainer for 20-30 minutes. This will release a lot of the water in the zucchini so your final dish won’t be a big watery mess.
Cooking Quick Shrimp Pesto Zoodles
When I’m using my Red Copper skillet that I love, love, love, I don’t really need to use olive oil or cooking spray, which saves on calories and fat. I just add the zoodles and cook until slightly tender.
Then I add the cooked shrimp.
And lastly, I add the pesto. Just make sure everything is hot and you’re good to go! If you’re not eating dairy-free, adding a quarter cup of heavy cream to this would be heavenly!
I topped my zucchini noodles with chopped pistachios since I used my pistachio pesto in this recipe. Use pine nuts, or any other nut if you don’t like pistachios.
Quick Shrimp Pesto Zoodles
Ingredients
- 4 zucchini medium sized
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 pound shrimp cooked
- 4 tablespoons pesto
- ⅛ teaspoons black pepper
Instructions
- Clean zucchini and cut off ends. Use a spiralizer to make zucchini into zucchini noodles.
- Sprinkle salt over zucchini and mix thoroughly, and let rest in a strainer for 20-30 minutes. This will help remove the excess water from the zucchini.
- Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. The pan I use doesn’t need cooking spray, but please add this if yours does. Add zucchini and cook until it starts to get tender. You don’t want to over cook it as it will get mushy.
- Add shrimp, pesto and black pepper. Cook until heated through.
Notes
- To make this more decadent, add a 1/4 cup of heavy cream, and top with grated Parmesan cheese.
- Grilled chicken can also be substituted for the shrimp.
Nutrition
Also check out Big Bear’s Wife Meal Plan Monday post for lots of amazing recipes from other fellow bloggers. I love checking this out every week to try out some new recipes. Enjoy!
Monna Ellithorpe
Hi Teri,
This looks delicious. I think I would actually like to try this dish, even though I’m not fond of zucchini.
I know many chefs are using all kinds of vegetables in different ways never thought of before.
Keep on posting your yummy and beautiful dishes.
Teri
Thanks! You should try it!