This pasta recipe with lemon shrimp and garlic came out of the depths of my old FB page – and I was reading all the lemon recipes I had and this looked really good to me – so I pulled it out, I refreshed it, and we had it for dinner.
I made it in the instant pot – one pot to clean – fairly quick and easy. If you don’t have an instant pot you definitely can make this on the stove – it will just take two pots. One large saute pan and another pot to boil up the pasta.
It’s really nice to revisit all these ‘lost’ recipes – and it reminds me, again, why I’m doing this. The FB platform just wasn’t the right place for organizing recipes. Given this web page, the formal recipe format, the searching capabilities, and category segregation – now you and I both will be able to search, say, Lemon Shrimp and see what kind of options we have from my kitchen !!
What was the inspiration for this pasta with lemon shrimp and garlic?
Very often in our house, I make pasta de jour – or as we call it – pasta mix up. It’s whatever protein and veggies I have in the house plus some spices and pasta. You can literally can make this combo 1,000 different ways! This is just one example.
Lemon shrimp and garlic is a classic combination – by starting with these elements you really can’t go wrong.
As the story goes, per the post from 2018, I had some shrimp I’d bought over the weekend that needed to be eaten – so shrimp was set as the protein. I also apparently had over indulged on the weekend (not like that ever happens?!) so I had to get back on the weight watcher wagon strong and needed a quick healthy dinner and pulled this together.
(Back then – before covid) As I drove home from work I thought about other components and what was in the veg drawer. Then I thought about all the insta pot chicken and noodle dishes I make and figured that was the ticket.
Are there substitutions / alterations to talk about ?
Greens :
Tonight I used a ton of roughly chopped spinach. The original recipe was a spinach / arugula combo. You could use kale if that’s your jam or maybe even a chard. I also used a LOT of spinach – trying to #VegItUp. But for your meal – use whatever amount you think is right. Sometimes in restaurants I notice that there is a small sprinkling of greens in a pasta or rice and I think its more decoration than an actual component of the meal. Again – you get to choose how much to add.
Protein :
You could fairly easily change this up to bite sized pieces of raw chicken or even – could use cooked roasted chicken (like from costco!)
The first time I cooked this I had some whole fresh wild shrimp that needed to be cleaned – and it took about 20 – 25 minutes to peel and de-vein. It’s a messy and yucky job – but I prefer to buy the wild shrimp and most times it isn’t cleaned…
Today I used thawed cleaned shrimp – which obviously saved me some time. I get my shrimp (argentinian wild shrimp) from Costco in 2 lb packages frozen. Just a little easier – but not quite as fresh as direct from the ocean…
Other Vegetables :
I typically always have onions and garlic in the house – they seem to be staples in the pantry. So I added a lot of garlic and chopped some onions. You could always add in green onions or shallots – anything from this family would be good and a perfect substitute.
Today I picked up a big container of cherry tomatoes in prep for this recipe. You could drain a can of diced tomatoes and use those if you don’t have fresh.
Of course my lemon tree is keeping us in lemons… Wouldn’t really sub out the lemon juice. My mom uses fake lemon juice from the grocery – if that’s all you have – you could use some of that.
I did go looking in the veg drawer and considered : Carrots (No), Celery (nah), Peppers (not tonight) and there was little else in there – so we were going to stick pretty close to the original recipe.
Except, when I made it for the original post – I had a fennel in the fridge – and that came out and I sliced that fairly thick and included it in the pasta.
Spices / Herbs :
I used the last of my pesto pasta seasoning. I’m sad. I called the spice house when I couldn’t find it online – and they said they were no longer selling it. booo. I used about 2.5 Tsp of this blend in the dish. Next time I’ll look to an Italian seasoning blend or fresh basil (fresh is always best) or some other favorite herb / spice blend.
Cheese / Cream :
Last time I made this dish I used some grated parmesan – which is always nice. It adds some salt and some acid to the dish. But I didn’t have any parm freshly grated so I kept looking and found less than 1/2 of a block of low fat cream cheese. So I tossed that in. You could use what you have – just be sure to consider the overall salt if you go with something like parm or romano etc.
You could also add a bit of cream or half and half to the dish when adding in the veg and you have it on warm. You’ll need to use slightly less stock – to make sure the final dish isn’t runny.
Don’t forget your lemon :
Not only does garlic shrimp need lemon – but every dish needs a bit of acid. Again I’ll reference the book Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat. We need some acid in the dish to make it taste bright and fresh. If you have a monster lemon like I have – I only needed 1/2 of the lemon for juice. Definitely add a portion of your lemon and stir and taste. Just like salt – ad a bit and see how the dinner tastes. You always have an option to add more.
Lemon and Garlic Shrimp Pasta with Tomatoes and Spinach
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 Tbl Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Tbl Butter
- 1 lb Shrimp – Peeled and deveined
- ½ Onion – Diced
- 4-6 Garlic Cloves – Minced
- 2.5 C Chicken Broth – Approximately – just to barely cover the pasta in the instant pot
- 8 oz Pasta – Whatever shape you have or like
- 1½ C Grape Tomatoes – Diced – sub any kind you have
- 4-6 oz Spinach – Rough Chopped
- 3-4 oz Low fat Cream Cheese – Or Parmesan / Ramano etc.
- 1 Lemon – Juiced
- 1 pinch Nutmeg
- 2.5 Tsp Spice / Herb Blend
- Salt & Pepper – At each step
Instructions
- Prepare all your ingredients.
- Turn instapot on Saute, swirl in some EVOO and add the butter. Let the pan heat a bit and then add the onion and garlic and let it cook a minute or two.
- Add the shrimp and cook for about 2.5 minutes. You want the shrimp slightly under cooked – so that when you finish the dish – your shrimp don't end up overcooked.
- When the shrimp is shy of being done – take the shrimp, onion and garlic out and set aside.
- Put the dry pasta into the instant pot and cover the pasta with broth – but just barely cover. The situation is that you need enough broth to cook the pasta but not too much to make the final dish too liquid-y. Set the instant pot on high pressure for 3 minutes and manual release when done.
- Turn the instant pot back on to saute – and add back the shrimp, onion and garlic, the tomatoes, the cream cheese, and the rough chopped spinach. Don't forget the spice / herb blend and the nutmeg pinch. (I used a LOT of spinach – and you see it was to the top of the instant pot.)
- Turn on saute. Stir a minute or two – the greens will wilt, the tomatoes will warm slightly, the shrimp will finish cooking and some of the broth will evaporate. Stir in about 1/2 C grated parm or the cream cheese. Once the spinach wilts a bit – take a bite – hows the salt level ? Add half a lemon worth of juice – stir up and taste. Do you need the other half of the juice ? (I used half of a mongo sized lemon…)
- Serve to those you love.
