shrimp Archives - A Calculated Whisk

Gluten-free Fritto Misto with Alaska Seafood

December 5, 2019 By Becky Leave a Comment

This post is sponsored by Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. I’m thrilled to be partnering with ASMI to share a series of delicious recipes highlighting sustainable, wild-caught seafood from Alaska.

When my husband and I spent time in Italy on our honeymoon, we had an amazing fritto misto in Venice. I’d never heard of the dish before, but it’s basically a variety of crispy fried seafood and vegetables served with lemon wedges and a delicious sauce for dipping—kind of like an Italian tempura. Fritto misto means “mixed fry” in Italian.

For the second recipe in my ongoing partnership with Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, I’m thrilled to share this amazing gluten-free fritto misto made with Alaska seafood. It’s a wild caught, homemade spin on what we ate in Italy, and it’s even better than the restaurant version!

6 Ways to Top Roasted Sweet Potatoes

November 22, 2017 By Becky 22 Comments

This post is sponsored by the North Carolina SweetPotato Commission.

With these six ways to top roasted sweet potatoes, everyone will be sure to find something they love. Pick one or two to make for dinner or go all out and try all six!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve! I’m here today to tell you about a delicious meal idea that, while not necessarily meant for Turkey Day itself, is certainly perfect for any busy night (or day or even morning) of the year when you need some fast and healthy grub.

Shrimp & Sausage Gumbo (Instant Pot or Not)

January 16, 2017 By Becky 21 Comments

This paleo, Whole30-compliant shrimp and sausage gumbo is a flavor-packed meal that comes together in half an hour in the Instant Pot, and just a little longer on the stovetop.

Today’s recipe comes from my friend Megan‘s book, The Big 15 Paleo Cookbook. If you don’t have it, you need to get your hands on it as soon as possible. It’s full of simple but delicious paleo recipes made with straightforward ingredients. The book has 15 chapters, each focusing on recipes made with one of the “big 15” paleo ingredients (see the cover below to find out what they are!).

I chose to make the gumbo recipe from the shrimp chapter, and while I wondered how it would turn out since it’s made with just a handful of everyday ingredients, I was definitely not disappointed.

You don’t have to bother with a roux–this paleo shrimp and sausage gumbo gets its great flavor from vegetables, healthy cooking fat, and Creole seasoning, plus the shrimp and sausage themselves. Megan recommends using shell-on shrimp for better flavor. I was hesitant at first, but after trying it I really do think the gumbo has more flavor due to having the shrimp shells in while it cooks.

Using unpeeled shrimp also makes it harder to overcook them, which is often a problem with quick-cooking shrimp. It’s a little messy peeling the saucy shrimp, but it’s also kind of fun. I love a good hands-on eating experience! If you don’t, you can peel them beforehand or even buy pre-peeled shrimp.

Stuffed Avocados with Shrimp and Mango

May 5, 2016 By Becky 13 Comments

Stuffed avocados with shrimp and mango are simple, quick, and crave-worthy, especially when topped with a spicy jalapeño aioli!

I’m having a really hard time writing this post because there aren’t any fixings for these stuffed avocados left, and I’m craving them so badly. They check all the boxes for my top practical considerations because they’re healthy, fast, easy, and filling. And they check all my flavor and texture boxes because they’re creamy, savory, spicy, and sweet with a little bit of crunch from the scallions. They’re pretty much all I’ve wanted for dinner ever since I first dreamed them up.

My fiancé Ben loves these, too. He’s not too hard to please with food because he’ll eat almost anything besides sweet potatoes or cooked apples (I know, right?), but it’s rare that he gets super excited about a food.

However, after the first time we had these stuffed avocados with shrimp and mango, he made a point of telling me twice that he really liked them. (And in case you don’t know Ben, “I really liked those” is Ben-speak for “Those are the best things I’ve ever tasted!”) He hasn’t said so many good things about one of my recipes since last time I made the millionaire’s shortbread from Paleo Planet.

The premise for this dish is simple: it’s an avocado boat stuffed with a shrimp and mango filling accented with scallions and topped with an easy jalapeño aioli. The aioli is creamy, heart-healthy and delicious thanks to its main ingredient: avocado oil mayo from Primal Kitchen, which I buy from Thrive Market (affiliate link–I earn from qualifying purchases). It has only a handful of wholesome ingredients: avocado oil, cage-free, organic eggs, organic vinegar, salt, and rosemary extract. No sugar or canola oil in sight!

It’s kind of weird for me to be whipping up a mayonnaise-based sauce because I’ve never been a fan of mayo, but this one is so good and unlocks so many epic paleo sauce possibilities. Since I try to limit my dairy intake and I’m allergic to coconut, there are so many creamy sauces out there that just don’t work for me.

I first used this avocado oil mayo last year in an awesome green goddess dressing, and I’ve been hooked ever since. This jalapeño aioli is even better because it’s nice and spicy, and in addition to being great with these stuffed avocados with shrimp it’s also epic with baked sweet potato fries.

Shrimp Burgers with Lemon Caper Relish

March 15, 2016 By Becky 12 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

These paleo shrimp burgers are a delicious and fun alternative to regular burgers, and are especially tasty on a sweet potato “bun”with lemon caper relish.

Three years ago Ben and I went to Jamaica and fell in love with the island’s food, weather, and laid-back attitude. (You can read about our trip here and here–but be warned that there are some bready photos, though, since that was before I discovered paleo. There are also crocodiles and caves!) One of the dishes I really enjoyed was a conch burger. It’s a seafood burger made with the succulent meat from conchs, which are giant marine snails. They’re hard to come by here in Chattanooga and I wasn’t sure how many of you would be excited about a snail burger, so I made shrimp burgers instead.

I’ve actually been working on this recipe on and off for over a year. First I had to perfect the burgers themselves. While all my attempts were delicious, I made multiple versions last year that completely fell apart when I tried to flip them. I ended up serving Ben and myself what was basically a pile of shrimp hash. It tasted so good that I almost leaned into it and changed the whole concept of the recipe, but in the end I really had my heart set on these being burgers, so I persevered.

I took a few months off because I was tired of defrosting shrimp and removing their tails. It really isn’t that hard, but after a while it can be a pain. Once it didn’t seem daunting anymore I jumped back in, and finally discovered the two keys to making sure these burgers stick together. First, you need to use a food processor to blend the ingredients, and second, the patties need to chill in the fridge for a bit before you cook them (that key tip is from America’s Test Kitchen via The Frugal Girl).

Curry Butter Shrimp

August 19, 2015 By Becky 34 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Curry Butter Shrimp | acalculatedwhisk.com

An easy and flavorful meal made from pantry staples, curry butter shrimp

takes ten minutes to make and is gluten-free and paleo-friendly.

I’ve kind of been boycotting grocery stores. Weekend before last I went to Florida for a wedding, and since getting back I have not set foot in one. I finished up my last week of my last internship for graduate school this past Friday, we’re getting ready to move down to Chattanooga this coming weekend, and I’m exhausted. Ben has been kind enough to pick up essentials like coffee, eggs, fruit, and bacon for us, but the eggs ran out yesterday.

What’s a girl to do without any eggs for breakfast and with a long day of packing ahead of her? The answer is definitely not grocery shopping. The answer is curry butter shrimp! Yes, I ate this at ten in the morning. No, I have no regrets. #dinnerforbreakfast may not be mainstream yet, but just you wait and see!

I didn’t do a 30 Minute Mondays post yesterday because I wanted to announce my cookbook (Paleo Planet is available for pre-order from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and indie bookstores near you!). This is even better, though, because this is like 10 Minute Wednesday–not as alliterative, but much faster. Not counting the rice or cauliflower rice, this meal comes together in just ten minutes. (And, true confession, I didn’t even make this rice. It’s left over from the Indian food we ordered last night.)

Curry butter shrimp is a flavorful pantry recipe that requires almost no chopping (except for the cilantro–but if you’re really anti-chop you could just break that up into little sprigs). Melted butter or ghee is mixed with Thai curry paste to form a fragrant sauce for cooking the shrimp. A tiny bit of maple syrup and fish sauce add just enough sweetness and umami to complement the rich butter and spicy curry.

Pesto Shrimp Bake with Squash and Tomatoes

August 3, 2015 By Becky 25 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Pesto Shrimp Bake with Squash and Tomatoes #30MinuteMondays | acalculatedwhisk.com

I know this is a totally blasphemous thing to say in the food blogging world, especially in the middle of summer, but I’m really not a fan of tomatoes. They’ve grown on me since I was a kid, when I wouldn’t touch foods with them in it (including pizza, ketchup, and most of all anything involving raw or sundried tomatoes). I now really enjoy a good tomato sauce (like this bolognese or this garlic tomato sauce) and I’ll dip into a fancy ketchup if it’s got curry mixed in or something, but the appeal of raw tomatoes still largely eludes me.

My best experience so far has been with a couple of memorable caprese salads, including one at dbar, one of my favorite Boston restaurants, which is conveniently located just blocks from our apartment. A caprese salad with housemade mozzarella and tomatoes and basil from their rooftop garden was on the specials menu, and my mom and I had to try it. And, surprisingly enough, I didn’t hate the raw tomatoes.

Grilled Shrimp Skewers with Creamy Sesame Slaw

July 13, 2015 By Becky 8 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Grilled Shrimp Skewers with Creamy Sesame Slaw | acalculatedwhisk.com #30MinuteMondays

Quick and easy grilled shrimp skewers, creamy sesame slaw, and ripe avocado get together to form the perfect paleo summertime meal.

I know it’s been quiet on the blog this past week, but I’m back with another delicious and fast recipe for 30 Minute Mondays! You can grill or broil these shrimp skewers, and the vegetables don’t need cooking. That means if you grill outdoors, you can avoid heating up your kitchen and still end up with a delicious and balanced meal. That’s what summer is all about, right?

My fiancé and I have been down in Chattanooga for the past few days, checking out jobs, houses, and apartments. Even though I grew up in Boston, I’ve always felt like I’m a Southern girl at heart due to my mom’s Texas roots and all the time I’ve spent down there, so I’m really excited that we’re moving to Tennessee next month. I’m almost done with graduate school, and after we move I’ll get to start my job as a speech-language pathologist working with kids of all ages (and of course, blogging in the evenings and on weekends). I can’t wait!

Roasted Shrimp and Asparagus with Green Goddess Dressing

June 29, 2015 By Becky 10 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Roasted Shrimp & Asparagus with Green Goddess Dressing (Paleo) | acalculatedwhisk.com #30minuteMondays

Succulent roasted shrimp and asparagus are served with a tangy garlic scape green goddess dressing for an easy, 30-minute paleo dinner that’s also Whole30-compliant.

I’m kind of mad at myself because I missed the boat on ramps this year. At the photography workshop I went to in May we ate them at almost every meal (there’s a picture of them in this post), and when I got home I vowed to track some down so I could cook with them myself for the first time. However, I’m a lazy late-evening grocery shopper and there were never any ramps left. Before long, their short season had ended.

You’ll be relieved to hear that I am NOT missing out on garlic scapes.

While ramps are their own kind of plant and are usually foraged wild (hence their limited availability), garlic scapes are the flowering stalks of garlic plants that farmers cut off so the plant’s energy can be fully devoted to the bulb forming below. Garlic scapes are cool looking (see evidence above) and I like their name: it sounds like they’ve been trying to escape from the head of garlic, which is pretty much what they actually do.

Garlic scapes are milder than regular garlic with some fresher, grassier notes to their flavor–kind of like a cross between garlic, scallions, and chives. Here I used them to make a green goddess dressing with some fresh herbs and Primal Kitchen’s avocado oil mayo, which I just tried for the first time. I’m not a mayo person at all so I don’t foresee myself ever eating it straight up, but once some other flavors are mixed in to create a dressing or aioli, I can usually hop on board. (If you haven’t seen garlic scapes at your local market, don’t worry. You can substitute scallions and a clove of regular old garlic.)

Burmese Chile Prawns with Cucumber and Avocado Salad

March 23, 2015 By Becky 24 Comments

Burmese Chile Prawns with Cucumber & Avocado Salad--Easy, 30-minute paleo meal | acalculatedwhisk.com

Are you fast in the kitchen? I’m super slow. No matter how much I wish I could be an ingredient ninja, I just can’t seem to get things located and prepped very quickly. I took a knife skills class a few months ago, which helped a little, but I think the issue stems more from disorganization than a lack of dexterity.

I’m working on making more 30-minute paleo dinners to share here on A Calculated Whisk. To make sure I’m representing things accurately, I time myself as I cook, which really highlights my lack of culinary efficiency. For this recipe, I started timing, assembled most of the ingredients for the marinade, and then realized I couldn’t find a sharp knife to cut the lime in half. I paused the timer while I located a chef’s knife and washed it, because I thought you, my wonderful readers, were likely to already have a clean knife on hand. Several other misplaced items and dirty dishes slowed me down and I didn’t stop the timer every time, but I still managed to make this meal in JUST over 30 minutes (if you’re making rice, you may need an extra 3-5 minutes to get that measured and set up).

So, even if you’re less than speedy in the kitchen, like me, you can have this dinner on your plate in just about half an hour.

Today’s recipe comes from Sue at Couscous and Consciousness. I was assigned her blog for this month’s Secret Recipe Club reveal, and had so much fun browsing through her delicious recipes. (I was also excited to read that Sue is a yoga teacher. I love yoga and have been trying to do at least a few sun salutations every morning. I wish I could take a class with Sue, but she lives in New Zealand, so it would be quite a commute.)

Sue’s food is colorful, creative, and usually on the lighter side, so there were a lot of tempting options to choose from. She also has many internationally inspired dishes, which makes browsing her site really fun. For this month’s reveal, top contenders included bengali aloo with lemon turmeric aioli, roasted apricot gelato, and plum and cardamon cake. Even though I’m not much of a salad person at all, I also found myself wanting to try this salmon with green tea soba noodle, broad bean, and radish salad and this watermelon and feta salad with preserved lemon dressing.

Spicy Shrimp and Kale with Creamy Rutabaga

February 16, 2015 By Becky 26 Comments

This is my paleo answer to the inexplicable cravings I’ve been having for shrimp and grits.

Who knows why? I’ve only had shrimp and grits a few times in my life, but lately they’ve been totally stuck in my head. Perhaps it’s because this coming Tuesday is Mardi Gras, and I wish I could just pick up and drive down to NOLA. When I lived in Houston New Orleans was only a five-hour drive away, and now it feels far enough to be in another world.

The good news is that this dish is just as delicious as shrimp and grits, if not more so, and instead of grits we have vegetables. Rutabagas for the win!

Also, I snuck some kale in there. This is hardcore health food.

It’s also hardcore comfort food. If there are 80 inches of snow on the ground in your city, or even if there aren’t (lucky you–do you happen to have a guest room??), this is just the thing to warm you up on a winter night. The creamy rutabaga forms a bed for plump shrimp bathed in an herby marinade and kale leaves that are crispy around the edges.

Shrimp & Zoodles with Garlic Tomato Sauce

August 6, 2013 By Becky 8 Comments

Have you ever made zoodles? If you get yourself a julienne peeler, you can be making zucchini into low-carb noodle stand-ins in no time. It’s actually really good. You may not be able to fool people into thinking they are eating actual spaghetti, but I don’t think anyone will be complaining.