Marinated Butterfly Shrimp with Salmon Pasta Salad

About

If you don’t own a grill, it’s no problem for this recipe. Even your oven can help you make a delicious Keto seafood meal that’s packed with flavor and has that “crispy outside, juicy center” feel. Jumbo shrimp marinate in a slightly spicy seasoning blend before they’re skewered and cooked on a baking rack. Served on the side is a pasta salad made with roasted salmon. You’ll tenderize the salmon with Keto-friendly olive oil and rub herbaceous spices into the flesh. After the salmon is roasted to perfection, it’s flaked and mixed with your other refreshing pasta salad ingredients. If you’re using this recipe for meal prepping, store the pasta salad together in one container, and keep the shrimp separate in another. You can re-heat the shrimp quickly in the microwave and enjoy cold pasta salad on the side, or you can warm the pasta salad before eating. However, both components of the meal taste great as cold leftovers too!

Shirataki Noodle Substitutes

The great thing about Shirataki noodles is they add little carbs (or in some cases, zero carbs) to your meal, depending on the brand you choose. Some shirataki noodles are made of mostly water and are 100% Keto friendly. Other brands add tofu which do add a few carbs per serving. Check the nutrition label of your Shirataki noodles before buying them. As trendy as they are, not all stores will carry Shirataki noodles. In this case, use spiralized zucchini or yellow squash noodles. There is no direct substitution for Shirataki noodles. Just keep in mind that every ounce of zucchini has about 1g of carbohydrates.

Tips For Butterflying Shrimp

Since this Keto recipe uses jumbo shrimp, it should be a little easy to butterfly them. Make sure your shrimp are very cold, so they’re easy to slice. You can chill your shrimp for a few minutes before butterflying them if you defrosted your shrimp from frozen. If it helps you, leave the tail on your shrimp so you have something dry to hold onto. Start with the blade of a sharp knife at a 90-degree angle at the head of the shrimp and facing the tail. Make a single incision from head to tail, leaving the tail intact. If your knife isn’t sharp, you won’t have a clean cut.

Ingredients

16 large raw shrimp
½ teaspoon olive or extra virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon seasoned salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
¼ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
6 ounce salmon, red (sockeye), raw, alaska native
½ teaspoon olive or extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
⅛ teaspoon black pepper
⅛ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon basil, dried
¼ teaspoon oregano, dried
1 tablespoon butter, unsalted
8 oz shirataki noodle
4 ½ oz grape tomato
2 ounce feta cheese
10 leaf basil
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive or extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon white wine vinegar
½ teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon butter, unsalted
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce

Instructions

Prepare the shrimp at least 1 hour before you want to cook them. Peel and devein the shrimp, and pat them dry with a paper towel. Butterfly each shrimp by slicing through the head, leaving the tail whole. Toss the butterflied shrimp in a bowl with the first amount of olive oil until the shrimp are evenly coated. Season the shrimp with seasoned salt, pepper, paprika, red pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Set the shrimp in your refrigerator to marinate for 1 hour.
While the shrimp is marinating, you can make the salmon for the pasta salad. Pat a whole fillet of salmon dry with a paper towel. Then, rub the olive oil into the flesh. Season the fish with lemon pepper, black pepper, onion powder, dried basil, and dried oregano. If your lemon pepper does not have salt, please include a pinch of salt when seasoning the salmon. You may let the salmon marinate in your refrigerator for 1-2 hours (in which case, prepare even earlier before you want to cook and eat this recipe), or you may continue on directly to Step 3.
Preheat an oven to 375 degrees and line a sheet tray with parchment paper. Place the fish on the tray and roast it for 20 minutes in the oven. After 20 minutes, melt the butter in a small dish in your microwave. Remove the fish from the oven and brush half the butter over the fillet. Return the fish to the oven to roast for another 20 minutes. Brush the remaining butter over the fish again and roast in your oven for a final 15 minutes, resulting in a total of 55 minutes of cooking time.
While the fish is in the oven, you can start preparing the pasta salad. Bring a pot of water to a boil while you drain your shirataki noodles and rinse them. Once the water is boiling, pour in the noodles and cook them for only 2-3 minutes. Drain the noodles and transfer them to a large mixing bowl. Add chopped grape tomatoes, crumbled feta cheese, and chopped fresh basil to the bowl.
When the salmon is done roasting, allow it to cool for at least 5 minutes. Use a fork to flake the fish into many small pieces. It is up to you to determine how flaky or chunky you want the pieces to be. Add the flaked salmon to your pasta salad bowl. Add your remaining salt, oil, vinegar, and lemon juice to the mixing bowl. Fold all the ingredients together until you have a completed pasta salad. For the time being, set the completed pasta salad in your refrigerator to chill.
For the shrimp, bring the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Prepare a baking rack by setting it over a sheet tray to catch any drippings. Additionally, either soak wooden skewers or spray some pan spray on metal cooking skewers. Pierce the shrimp lengthwise, from tail to head, with the skewers – each skewer having 4 shrimp. Arrange the skewers over your baking rack.
Bake the shrimp in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the shrimp from the oven. Melt the butter in a microwave and stir the worcestershire sauce into the butter. Brush half the butter mixture over the shrimp. Bake the shrimp for another 10 minutes. Brush the last of the butter over the shrimp and bake for one more round of 10 minutes, totaling 30 minutes of baking time. Serve 4 shrimp with approximately 5 ounces of pasta salad.