For an easy and healthy 20 minute meal, you'll love this zucchini pasta with pesto that combines zoodles (courget noodles) with a quick homemade pesto sauce. Add an optional protein on the side like plump shrimp, chicken bites, or tender white beans.
Pesto Zoodles with Shrimp
Pesto is a simple Italian sauce that combines garlic, salt, basil, and cheese. When combined with zoodles, the garlic, and basil both stand out but do not overpower the subtly of the cheese or zoodles. Topping the pesto zucchini noodles with shrimp offers a dinner that is light yet filling, and ripe with flavor.
Serve the pesto zucchini pasta noodles with a side salad, top it with additional cheese and pesto if desired, or meal prep it for work lunches - it's delicious both warm and cold!
If you can't get enough zucchini, be sure to check out our other zoodle recipes including zoodle carbonara, keto alfredo sauce with zoodles, and chicken zoodle soup.
Why You'll Love This!
- Sauteed shrimp cooks up quickly (in just 1-2 minutes!) and it waits patiently while you prepare the rest of this dish.
- Zucchini noodles are an excellent way to increase your vegetable intake while keeping your dishes low-carb and keto-friendly.
- As a complete meal, healthy pesto zoodles with shrimp works well for keto, low-carb, and gluten-free eating plans. By themselves, pesto zucchini noodles provide the perfect vegetarian dish.
- Homemade pesto sauce tops this dish with amazing flavor but doesn't overpower the rest of the ingredients. But to make the recipe come together even quicker, you can sub your favorite store-bought pesto sauce.
Ingredient Notes
- raw shrimp - peeled (leaving tails on is optional)
- zucchini - spiralized
- extra virgin olive oil
- pesto sauce - homemade recipe below or store-bought
- Optional garnish - Shredded parmesan cheese, fresh basil leaves, dollops of pesto sauce
Just one batch of pesto makes more than you'll need for this recipe, we share our 5 minute recipe and it actually makes double what you'll need - just freeze the leftovers for later! This is the same sauce that we also use in our homemade pesto recipe.
Pesto Sauce
- 2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 cups fresh basil leaves
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup pine nuts
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ cup parmesan, grated or shredded
Variations
- Change things up by swapping out shrimp for chicken. These pan-fried chicken tenders pair nicely with zoodles and pesto.
How to Make Zucchini Pesto Pasta with Shrimp
This recipe comes together fast, so prep everything before you start cooking. Get the full instructions down in the recipe card, this is just an overview of the recipe steps.
Prep the Ingredients:
Spiralize your zucchini (or use store-bought zoodles). If using homemade pesto, blend it now so it’s ready to go. Jarred pesto works great too!
Cook the Shrimp:
Sauté shrimp in olive oil over medium-high heat for about a minute per side, just until pink. Remove and keep warm.
Cook the Zoodles:
Lower the heat and cook the zucchini noodles for 4–5 minutes, stirring often. Drain any excess liquid to keep the pesto from getting watery.
Assemble:
Stir 2–3 tablespoons of pesto into the zoodles, then add the shrimp. Warm everything through if needed. Garnish with extra parmesan, basil, or a dollop of pesto.
Serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.
Recipe Tips
- This recipe comes together lightening fast, make sure you've prepped everything in advance.
- We recommend just cooking the zoodles until they're still a little crisp or al dente, they'll continue cooking when they rest. Overcooked zoodles = soggy zucchini.
- Since zoodles are 90% water, drain them after cooking so you don't water down your pesto.
- Save any leftover pesto zoodles in the fridge and enjoy a super tasty low carb meal prep lunch later in the week.
Common Questions
Although this keto pesto zoodles with shrimp dinner is a complete meal, feel free to pair it with a side salad, an additional vegetable dish, or breadsticks for your non-low-carb family members.
Our pesto zoodles recipe makes enough for four servings, and each serving contains just 322 calories, including the shrimp. The calorie count is based on using our homemade pesto sauce. If you opt for store-bought pesto, the calorie count may change.
You can store any leftover zoodles with pesto you have in the fridge in a covered container. For best results, eat within 2-3 days.
More Low Carb Zucchini Recipes
- Keto Zucchini Carbonara
- Keto alfredo sauce with zoodles
- Zucchini and tomato curry
- Roasted baby zucchini
- Keto Chicken noodle soup with zoodles
If you loved our recipe, please leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review and leave us a comment too! Connect with us on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube!
Recipe
Zucchini Noodles with Pesto
Ingredients
- 1 lb raw shrimp peeled (leaving tails on is optional)
- 1 ½-2 lb zucchini spiralized
- 1-2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2-3 tablespoon prepared pesto sauce homemade recipe below
- Optional garnish - Shredded parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Spiralize the zucchini or buy zoodles ready to go from the grocery store. If you're making homemade pesto sauce, you'll want to do that before you start cooking. If you're using a jarred grocery store pesto, skip ahead to cooking the shrimp and zucchini.
- Make the pesto sauce: In a food processor with the machine running, mince2 teaspoon garlic until fine, and add 2 cups fresh basil leaves, ½ cup olive oil, ¼ cup pine nuts, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ cup shredded parmesan. Puree into a smooth paste in a food processor or blender, scraping the bowl down a couple of times if needed.
- This makes more pesto than you'll need for the recipe, use the leftovers to mix with soups, eggs, or more zoodles. The sauce freezes for up to 6 months.
- Saute the shrimp: Heat 2 T olive oil heat in a skillet on medium-high heat. Cut the olive oil back to 1 tablespoon if you're using a non-stick pan.
- Add the shrimp and cook it for 1 minute, until the shrimp turns pink. Only cook the shrimp until it's just done. Remove the shrimp from the pan and set aside, keeping it warm in a covered dish.
- Cook the zucchini noodles: Turn the burner down to medium heat. Saute the zucchini noodles in the pan for 4-5 minutes, stirring them frequently. Drain any liquid from the zoodles.
- Add the 2-3 tablespoon of the pesto sauce to the zucchini noodles.
- If the shrimp is still warm you can just add it to the top of the shrimp zoodles and serve it immediately. You can also add the shrimp back to the pan to heat them slightly before serving.
- Serve immediately. Garnish with more parmesan, fresh basil, or additional pesto on the side. Serves 4. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Ellie Jones says
Do you ever use frozen zoodles? If I steam and drain them, should I just mix in with the pesto and warm shrimp?