Shrimp with Zucchini Fettuccini

Shrimp with Zucchini Fettuccini

I love pasta, however I tend to keep my carbs quite low in my diet most of the time. I came up with a technique for cooking zucchini that gives me the same texture and feel as pasta without the carbs. Since I tend to add healthy fats and oils to my clients diets I wanted to come up with an oil based sauce to go with it.

Lets start with the sauce, this is going to be basically a pesto sauce that does not require cooking of any kind. This pesto will go well with all sorts of dishes and keeps well in the fridge. This pesto can be found in the recipe section of the website.

Now to the zucchini, in order to make it look like linguine pasta you will require a kitchen tool known as a mandolin. This can slice food in many ways and thickness depending on how you set it up. I set mine up so the zucchini will be sliced into strips about ¼ “ wide and 1/16 “ thick.

Step 1. Peel one medium sized zucchini, make sure you peel it well.

Step 2. Time to slice it on the mandolin, if you don’t have a mandolin you can use a chef knife but it will take some time and skill.

Step 3. Store it covered in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

Now for the shrimp, I am going to cook 1lb so I have some for other meals later.

Step 1. Remove all the shell except for the tail portion, shrimp looks nicer with the tail still on.

Step 2. Slice the shrimp about ¼ “ deep along the center of the back. If you see a dark strip or vein remove it, this is something you don’t want to eat.

Step 3. Season shrimp with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Step 4. Bring your pan up to temperature over high heat and spray with cooking spray.

Step 5. Cook shrimp on one side for about one minute or until flesh becomes a pinkish golden hue. Turn and let cook for another minute or so until the shrimp become opaque in the middle.

Step 6. Remove shrimp from heat and place in a bowl and toss with a drizzle of lemon juice and a chopped clove of garlic. I remove the shrimp I won’t be eating at this time and store it in the fridge, the remaining shrimp stays in the bowl.

To put it all together just throw the zucchini into the same pan the shrimp just came out of, there is no need to put it back on the heat you just want to warm the zucchini. After tossing it around for 30 seconds or so add it to the bowl of shrimp and add one tbsp of the pesto and toss. Now you can plate it or eat it right out of the bowl.

This dish with 5oz of shrimp, one medium zucchini and 1 tbsp of pesto has the following stats.

33g Protein, 6.7g Carbohydrates, 10.2g of Fat

If you are not watching your carbohydrate intake by all means cook and use whole wheat pasta. This simple dish not only tastes great but will impress anyone you prepare it for. Enjoy!

Nutrient breakdown provided by “The NutriBase Nutrition Facts Desk Reference 2nd Edition”