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If you’re looking for a healthy, low-calorie recipe that is bursting with garlic lemon flavor, with perfectly cooked shrimp and asparagus, this one pot recipe is for you!
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One Pan Lemon Garlic Butter Shrimp and Asparagus
This delicious shrimp dish I made as a spin off from my Lemon Garlic Butter Shrimp Skillet is bursting with flavor – and it comes together in less than 20 minutes.
If you love lemon, garlic, and butter – but you’re watching carbs or calories – this dish is great for you!
It is low calorie, low carb, and full of flavor – plus the whole family will love this shrimp skillet!
Just like my shrimp florentine, bang bang shrimp, and easy cilantro lime shrimp recipes, this dish is great on it’s own, or served over rice, cauliflower rice, noodles, zoodles, or pasta.
I’ll be sharing one of my favorite ways to make this shrimp dish – served over spaghetti squash like my spaghetti squash shrimp scampi – in this post – but you can sub the spaghetti squash for spaghetti, linguine, or even zoodles, too!
This shrimp skillet is incredibly adaptable – have fun making it your own! I hope you love this recipe as much as I do.
How to Make Shrimp and Asparagus
- Nonstick frying pan (I love GreenPan – it is affordable and natural – and this pink and brass set is beyond adorable) – essential for mess-free stir frying and preparing seafood. Look for dishes with a metal or oven-safe handle for maximum use.
- Spatula – large, wide, nonstick spatula is the best to toss stir frys and skillet dishes. Nonstick helps shrimp and lemon from sticking to spatula.
- Sharp Knife or Shrimp Knife – small sharp knife or specialty tool best for removing shrimp shell and vein, if needed.
- Chef’s Knife – best to cut lemon, onion, garlic, asparagus with a large, heavy, and sharp chef’s knife.
Tips and Tricks for Perfect Shrimp and Asparagus
This recipe is simple enough for even beginner cooks – it is a great way to learn cook time of shrimp and vegetables, and there aren’t any complicated instructions or fancy tools.
Don’t Overcook Shrimp. Shrimp will continue cooking in the pan for a few minutes even after you pull it off the heat – so be sure to pull it the second the shrimp is no longer gray and has turned opaque. Overcooked shrimp is gummy and can taste fishy – perfect shrimp is buttery, slightly sweet, and doesn’t smell or taste fishy.
Keep Tails On Or Take Them Off. I like to leave the shrimp tails on when serving this dinner in a way I care about the presentation (like at a semi-fancy dinner party or guests I’d like to impress) because it simply looks prettier – but I often take them off when making this for a quick and easy dinner or a romantic meal. I do like that keeping shrimp tails on can give extra shrimp flavor to the dish – but they can be a pain to peel as you eat if you’re in a hurry, serving to children, or want to look cute when eating your meal!
Emulsify sauce for pasta. If you’re making pasta while preparing this shrimp skillet, remove 1 cup of starchy pasta water at the end of cooking and add to shrimp recipe to help thicken and emulsify the garlic butter sauce!
Add water right before adding shrimp to pan to prevent the boiling water from overcooking shrimp.
Bring to a rapid boil while tossing shrimp into the dish, cook until shrimp is pink, and then remove from heat – most of the water will have reduced and thickened, and will more easily stick to pasta thanks to the starchy pasta water!
How To Store Shrimp and Asparagus. After cooking, this recipe can be stored in a refrigerator for up to four days. To reheat, add 2 tbsp butter to pan and let melt until foamy. Add leftovers to pan and cook on medium-high heat about 5-8 minutes, until piping hot.
How To Freeze Shrimp and Asparagus Skillet. I personally don’t reccomend freezing this recipe – the texture of both shrimp and asparagus can get mushy and grainy when freezing. If you’d like to freeze to make easy meals later on, I suggest prepping all the ingredients and then freezing them on a baking sheet lined with parchment or freezer paper. Once all ingredients have frozen through, transfer to a plastic bag. To prepare, remove from freezer and cook in frying pan with 2 tbsp butter on medium high heat until shrimp is pink and vegetables are softened.
Recipe FAQ’s
If making at home, you will probably want to remove shrimp tails. I candidly leave them on because it looks better in pictures – and shrimp tails add a bit more flavor to the dish when cooking – but it is totally optional. Most people take them off when cooking at home.
Don’t overcook shrimp – when shrimp is overcooked it has a gummy, grainy texture and fishy flavor. Properly cooked shrimp should taste slightly sweet and never fishy.
Shrimp will turn from grey and translucent to bright pink and white when cooked. Remove shrimp from heat immediately when just cooked – do not overcook.
What to Serve with Shrimp and Asparagus Skillet
This shrimp dinner is absolutely delicious and is crave-worthy straight from the pan (I swear, I want to lick the pan when I make this – it’s THAT good!), but I am including one of my favorite easy serving suggestions with this meal – spoon it over keto pasta or pasta!
Spaghetti squash. Prepare 4 cups spaghetti squash (I personally like to buy the bags of prepped spaghetti squash from my grocery store – they can be microwaved in 6 minutes and gently pulled apart into strings. If you want to know how to prepare a whole spaghetti squash, visit my Spaghetti Squash Scampi recipe.
Zoodles. If serving over zoodles, prepare noodles from two zucchini (plan on 1/2-1 zucchini per person, depending on hunger.) I personally like to cook recipe until shrimp are almost done, and add zucchini noodles to the pan and let them briefly cook until shrimp is done. Some like zucchini noodles very cooked, some like them just cooked, and some like them raw – you can prepare this dish as you prefer!
Shiritake Noodles. If you like keto shiritaki noodles , prepare 1 package noodles for every two people, according to package directions. Sometimes if we’re really hungry, we will prepare 1 package per person, since these noodles are very low calorie and low carb. Drain noodles well and rinse two times (I just cut a small hole in the bag and drain, then fill the bag twice with cold water and letting it rinse off) to lessen the fermented smell. Pan fry in 2 tbsp olive oil for 2-3 minutes. You can add to shrimp and asparagus skillet in final minutes of cooking to strengthen flavor and coat in sauce.
Pasta. Plan for about 1 1/2 cups cooked pasta per person – thats 4 oz per person, or 1/2 a pasta box. Boil noodles while you’re preparing the shrimp and asparagus. It is delicious topped with Zhoug (Skhug) Sauce, or stirred into Lemon Zucchini Pasta!
For more of our vegetable dishes that pair well with this skillet, check out our recent favorites below:
Try these other favorites:
The Best Easy Shrimp and Asparagus Skillet Recipe
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Best Easy Shrimp and Asparagus Skillet Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter divided
- 1 large shallot minced
- ½ white onion diced
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 1 bunch asparagus woody stalks removed and cut into 1″ pieces
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- 1 tsp good quality sea salt
- 1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
- 2 tsp italian herbs seasoning
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes optional
- 1 lemon cut into thin rounds
- 1 lb shrimp peeled and de-veined (I prefer 16-20 count but any size is fine)
Instructions
- In heavy nonstick pan, melt 2 tbsp butter until foamy on medium high heat.
- Add onion to pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft – about 4 minutes.
- Add garlic and shallot and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add asparagus and cherry tomatoes to pan.
- Cook another 4 minutes, until tomatoes cook down and asparagus is bright green.
- Add in shrimp and lemon slices, toss.
- Generously season with salt, pepper, herbs.
- Add additional 2 tbsp butter.
- Continue cooking until shrimp is pink and white (no longer translucent and grey), about 5 minutes.
- Do not overcook shrimp – when shrimp is done, remove from heat and serve.
- Remove lemon slices when serving.
made this tonight! delicious. one questions is the amount of sodium listed. I actually use no salt and unsalted butter. Otherwise, I’ll definitely make this again.
Glad you liked it! I will update the nutrition facts.
Will do this… this weekend !
No shrimps/prawns listed in the ingredients tho ?