Recipes Ingredients Seafood Recipes Shrimp Recipes 17 Shrimp Dinner Ideas for Delicious Weeknight Meals This fast, healthy, and versatile protein is always a great option—and, best of all, cooks quickly. By Lynn Andriani Lynn Andriani Lynn is a freelance writer for MarthaStewart.com. Editorial Guidelines Published on February 16, 2023 Photo: Johnny Miller Shrimp is such a great weeknight dinner staple—it's quick to cook, reasonably priced, healthy, and versatile. The recipes in this collection of shrimp dinner ideas hit all of those notes and then some. You'll find salads, Mexican-inspired meals, pastas, curries, Southern classics, and more. All are satisfying and delicious. Although the recipes here work well with fresh and frozen shrimp, frozen is actually preferred; it's more likely that the shrimp were frozen within a very short time of being out of the water, which helps preserve their fresh flavor. Fresh shrimp may have been frozen at some point, and then thawed before you bought them. And while shrimp isn't difficult to cook, you'll want to keep an eye on it to make sure you don't overcook it. One tried-and-true trick: Watch the thickest part (which is at the opposite end from the tail), and when the flesh at that area turns from translucent to opaque, the shrimp is done. Generally speaking, one to three minutes is all it takes. How's that for a quick dinner? Our Favorite Quick Pasta Dinners for Weeknights 01 of 17 Crispy Panko Shrimp Salad Ren Fuller In this quick five-ingredient dish, Dijonnaise (a flavorful mixture of mustard and mayo) does double duty, binding panko crumbs to the shrimp and also adding creaminess to the salad dressing. View Recipe 02 of 17 Spicy Shrimp Fajitas with Grilled Pineapple Pico Although this recipe calls for cooking the shrimp in a cast-iron skillet over a grill, you can just as easily use a grill pan over the stove (or any pan, for that matter). The finished dish is still a terrific combo of sweet and spice, thanks to lime, chipotle-in-adobo sauce, and pineapple. View Recipe 03 of 17 Spaghetti with Shrimp, Kale, and Burst Tomatoes Chris Simpson Frozen shrimp is a great ingredient to have on hand for last-minute meals. Here, it adds heft to cherry tomatoes, kale, and spaghetti for a healthy and quick dinner. View Recipe 04 of 17 Shrimp and Sausage with Cheesy Grits Jenny Huang Shake up your dinner rut with this dinner version of shrimp and grits. You sear smoky andouille sausage and shrimp in a skillet, then arrange them on top of a comforting bowl of cheesy grits. A saucy fried egg is the crowning achievement on this breakfast-for-dinner winner. View Recipe 05 of 17 Coconut-Curry Shrimp and Couscous Bryan Gardner Whipping up this Thai-inspired curry is faster than waiting for takeout. The secret? Teaming quick-cooking ingredients including fresh shrimp, frozen peas, and couscous with the flavor bomb that is red curry paste. View Recipe 06 of 17 Gingery Shrimp Salad with Crispies Paola + Murray This healthy dinner salad has fun additions like juicy seared shrimp and crunchy tortilla strips, which make it feel like a special occasion treat—even though it's quick and easy enough to make on a weeknight. Another reason to love it: It has a fantastic balance of textures and flavors. View Recipe 07 of 17 Spaghetti and Shrimp Meatballs Here's a surprising twist on meatballs that omits beef or pork in favor of shrimp, amped up with panko, Pecorino Romano, fresh basil, and scallions. Pair them with our classic five-ingredient red sauce and serve with spaghetti for a lighter take on a favorite meal. View Recipe 08 of 17 Cajun Shrimp and Rice Ren Fuller It's hard to resist jambalaya, the Creole and Cajun rice dish that combines meat, vegetables, and rice. This version incorporates spicy pork sausage and shrimp, as well as the Louisiana trinity of onion, bell pepper, and celery. View Recipe 09 of 17 Shrimp Maque Choux Lennart Weibull Here's another Cajun-inspired meal with incredible flavor that you can have on the table in under an hour. Its star ingredients are sweet corn, spicy peppers, and shrimp. Bonus: The "milk" scraped from the corn cobs after the kernels are cut off gives the broth an irresistible creaminess. View Recipe 10 of 17 Warm Farro-and-Winter-Greens Salad Lennart Weibull In this easy and nourishing recipe, nutty farro enriches a warm winter salad that features earthy beets, crisp winter greens, and briny feta cheese. Although any protein would work here, shrimp is a particularly nice complement to the beets' sweetness and the salty feta. View Recipe 11 of 17 Thai-Curry Shrimp Linguine Kate Sears With pantry staples, such as Thai curry paste and coconut milk, and a few fresh ingredients, like green beans, shrimp, cilantro, and lime, you can have a lovely meal on the table in about 40 minutes. View Recipe 12 of 17 Shrimp with Zucchini and Spicy Couscous Johnny Miller This one-skillet meal consists of three quick-cooking stalwarts: shrimp, zucchini, and couscous. It also has a fantastic combination of flavors, with tang and heat from salsa and earthy notes from canned green chiles. View Recipe 13 of 17 Scandinavian Shrimp Salad Lennart Weibull This elegant entrée combines shrimp, hard-boiled eggs, cornichons, fennel, soft buttery lettuce, and boiled baby potatoes. And it's practical, too, since you can use the same pan to cook the shrimp and the potatoes. View Recipe 14 of 17 Shrimp Scampi with Yellow-Squash Noodles Armando Rafael This terrific recipe combines the familiar (shrimp sautéed with butter, garlic, and red pepper flakes) with the unexpected (yellow squash that you transform into sunny strands of "pasta"). View Recipe 15 of 17 Instant Pot Shrimp Boil Julia Gartland A mix of smoky sausage, briny shrimp, tender potatoes, and sweet corn come together for this casual southern dinner known as a low-country boil. Use a multicooker so everything cooks quickly; then serve it all up on one one big platter. It's a colorful mix that's terrific for a cookout or beachside gathering. View Recipe 16 of 17 Shrimp with Spicy Green Rice Con Poulos Taking a cue from the Venetian risi e bisi, a soupy rice-and-peas, this version with shrimp highlights sweet and crunchy sugar snap peas with Southeast Asian ingredients. Of note, chiles and ginger, which bring a little heat, basil and cilantro, which add freshness, and fish sauce, which lends salty depth. View Recipe 17 of 17 Shrimp-and-Basil Glass-Noodle Stir-Fry Christopher Testani Each ingredient gets its turn in the wok in this easy shrimp stir-fry: shiitake mushrooms, shrimp, snap peas, eggs, and glass noodles (which just so happen to be gluten-free). Added just before serving, fresh basil leaves become slightly wilted from the heat, adding wonderful aroma and bright flavor. View Recipe Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit