Looking for a quick recipe to fit into your busy schedule? Our garlic shrimp recipe might just be the one.
It sounds counterintuitive, but when asked if they cook often, our chefs said no. “Cooking is my passion, but it has become work, and I don’t intend to bring work home,“ said one chef, agreeing with the others. Living off of takeouts isn’t a solution either, because a decent, healthy meal can be very costly.
As a result, their compromise is to cook, but only once on Sunday, and for the entire week. They’ve lived by this method since forever, and it has saved plenty of time. It’s also not that bad having the same dish for several days, especially when it is super indulging.
In this article, we’re sharing the perfect recipe for this method. We’ll be cooking shrimp with tons of garlic, in lots of butter, then seasoning them with just salt, pepper, and pepper flakes. These are very simple ingredients you can easily find, and the garlicky, buttery sauce is just impossible to let go of.
What Makes Our Garlic Shrimp Healthier
To begin with, shrimp is a good source of complete proteins. There are about 39.4 g proteins in this recipe, coming with a small amount of omega 3s that can benefit the heart and the brain.
Still, the dish is originally prepared with lots of butter and hence, high in saturated fats. While fats are crucial for the human body, experts advise that we try to consume less saturated fats and replace them with healthier fats.
Since fats also provide lots of calories, high-fat diets can also put you at risk of consuming more calories than you desire.
To keep these nutritional figures within acceptable ranges, we modified the size of each portion. Fewer shrimp means a less fulfilling meal, so we served it with cooked rice and a salad. Together, they form a tasty and very filling meal.
Ingredients for Our Garlic Shrimp Recipe
Besides the obvious ingredients of garlic and shrimp, you’ll need butter, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
We are using just two large cloves of garlic, which is enough to provide plenty of flavor. But, as our favorite person once said “There’s no such thing as too much garlic,” feel free to alter this amount.
The salad that sides with it calls for lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers; dressed in lemon juice, mustard, and honey. You can refrigerate the veggies and dressing separately and toss them together when it’s time to serve.
It is probably a bias, but we love the idea of drizzling the garlicky, buttery sauce over warm rice. If you prefer pastas, they’ll work very well too. Swap out our three and a half cups of cooked rice for 19 oz of your favorite pasta — they both yield the same amount of calories.
Can I Use Garlic Powder?
Compared to fresh garlic, garlic powder is actually more concentrated in flavor and more convenient to use. Still, it can’t replicate the soft texture as well as the flavor explosion within each piece of garlic that so many, including us, adore. Hence, as both have very different uses, we believe the answer is up to you.
If you’re concerned that using garlic powder will lower the dish’s nutritional values, there’s not a lot of garlic in it to begin with. It is better to harvest garlic’s health benefits from dietary supplements instead.
How to Make Garlic Shrimp
The shrimp is pretty straightforward to cook: we sauteed some garlic with butter first, then added the shrimp with several seasonings. We then served it with cooked rice that we had cooked earlier.
Because we prefer our salad chilled, we prepared and refrigerated it prior to making the shrimp.
Here’s the entire process:
- Prepare the vegetables, the dressing, and the rice.
- Saute garlic with butter.
- Add the shrimp to cook and season it.
- Serve and enjoy the meal.
More details on ingredient measurements and cooking timing are listed at the bottom of this article — our printable ‘Garlic Shrimp Recipe’ card.
Storing and Reheating The Shrimp
If you’re going to cook up a giant portion for the week, we suggest making just enough for 3 or 4 days. That’s how long you should keep cooked shrimp in the fridge — then plan your next cook-up. Divide each portion neatly into small containers, and place them in the fridge until serving.
The same thing applies to the side salad and cooked rice/ pasta.
To reheat:
- Heat the shrimp and sauce over medium heat until heated through.
- Heat the rice/ pasta with about 1 tbsp water per serving until heated through.
What to Serve With Garlic Shrimp
We serve this dish with some onion rings and a glass of juice, both also taking just minutes to make. Together, the three make for a satisfying, tasty meal:
Garlic Shrimp Recipe
Our garlic shrimp recipe is a perfect dish for meal preps. It's quick, easy, and tastes good every single time.
- cook TIME 12 mins
- prep TIME 8 mins
- total TIME 20 mins
- COURSE Main Course
- CUISINE American
- SERVINGS servings
- CALORIES 505 kcal
INGREDIENTS
- 3 tbspunsalted butter
- 2 tbspgarlic (minced)
- 12 ozpeeled shrimp (from 24 oz whole shrimp)
- 0.5 tspsalt
- 0.5 tsppepper (divided)
- 2 tbspparsley (finely chopped)
- 0.5 tsppepper flake
- 1.5 tbspolive oil
- 1 tbsplemon juice
- 1 tsptraditional Dijon mustard
- 0.5 tsphoney
- 4 ozcrystal lettuce (cut into bite-sized pieces)
- 4 ozcucumber (halved and sliced)
- 4 ozcherry tomatoes (halved)
- 3.5 cupscooked medium-grain rice
INSTRUCTIONS
In a bowl, stir together 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp mustard, 1/2 tsp honey, and 1/4 tsp pepper. Refrigerate both this dressing and the vegetables (crystal lettuce, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, all cut up into bite-sized pieces and weighing 4 oz each) until serving.
Melt 3 tbsp butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Saute 2 tbsp garlic (or more, to your liking) for about 30 seconds.
Add 12 oz peeled shrimp to the skillet along with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp ground black pepper. Cook for about 6 minutes, then turn off the heat and sprinkle on top 2 tbsp parsley and 1/2 tsp pepper flakes.
To serve, drizzle the dressing on top of the vegetables. Serve the salad along with the shrimp and 3 1/2 cups cooked rice.
NUTRITION
Luna Regina
Founder
SaVanna Shoemaker, MS, RDN, LD
Nutrition Reviewer