Zoodles with Shrimp in Coconut Sauce & Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Shrimp seared golden in olive oil, tossed with spiralized zucchini in a coconut milk sauce with wilted spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. One pan, fifteen minutes, done.
The coconut milk and olive oil carry most of the energy here — 36g of fat alongside 31g of protein from the shrimp — while the zucchini noodles keep carbs at just 18g. At 522 kcal, this is a naturally high-fat, low-carb dinner that got there without trying.
Shrimp seared golden in olive oil, tossed with spiralized zucchini in a coconut milk sauce with wilted spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. One pan, fifteen minutes, done.
The coconut milk and olive oil carry most of the energy here — 36g of fat alongside 31g of protein from the shrimp — while the zucchini noodles keep carbs at just 18g. At 522 kcal, this is a naturally high-fat, low-carb dinner that got there without trying.
Ingredients
- shrimp (frozen) 4 ounces
- onion 0.5
- garlic 1 clove
- sun-dried tomatoes 2
- zucchini 1
- olive oil 1.5 tablespoon
- coconut milk 2 fluid ounces
- water 0.25 cup
- yellow mustard 0.5 teaspoon
- Italian seasoning 1 teaspoon
- spinach 5 ounces
Method
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Take the shrimp out of the freezer and let them thaw on a plate.
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Chop the onion and finely mince the garlic. Cut the sun-dried tomatoes into strips. Meanwhile, make zoodles with a spiralizer from the zucchini.
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Pat the shrimp dry with kitchen paper and season them with pepper and salt. Heat half of the oil in a pan and sauté the shrimp over high heat for 2 minutes. Remove from the pan and set them aside on a plate.
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Heat the other half of the oil in the pan. Sauté the onion and garlic for a minute. Then add the coconut milk to the pan along with the water, mustard, and Italian seasoning. Heat the coconut milk until it begins to thicken. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and spinach to the pan until the spinach wilts. Then add the shrimp and heat for another minute.
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Stir the zoodles into the sauce and heat for about 1 minute to keep them crispy.
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Serve on a plate and season the dish with pepper and salt to taste.
Let the spinach wilt fully into the coconut sauce in step 4, not just tossed in at the last second. Research tested 14 different plant-based milks with spinach and found coconut milk was the only one that significantly improved lutein liberation from the greens. The medium-chain fats in the coconut milk act as a vehicle for the fat-soluble compounds in the spinach, and that happens when they are in direct contact during cooking.
Why This Works
Behind this recipe
Why coconut milk instead of regular cream?
Beyond flavor, coconut milk does something specific in this recipe. Researchers tested 14 plant-based milks with spinach and found coconut milk was the only one that significantly improved lutein liberation from the greens. The medium-chain fats in coconut milk act as a delivery vehicle for fat-soluble compounds in the spinach, something cream or other plant milks do not replicate as effectively.
Read the full evidence reviewIs 36 grams of fat too much for a single dinner?
This meal gets 62% of its calories from fat, mostly from coconut milk and olive oil, with just 18g of carbs. That is a naturally high-fat, low-carb profile, not engineered for keto but what happens when you swap pasta for zucchini and build the sauce around coconut milk. Research into whether this kind of macro split supports muscle growth found that high-fat diets with adequate protein (31g here) can maintain lean mass even with minimal carbs.
Read the full evidence reviewCan I use regular pasta instead of zoodles?
Sure, but expect a different meal. Swapping in 100g of cooked penne adds roughly 30 to 35g of carbs and over 150 kcal, flipping the fat-to-carb ratio that defines this dinner. The zucchini noodles are what keep this high-protein and low-carb. Remove them and the whole macro profile changes.
