Quick & Healthy Dinner: 20 Minute Honey Garlic Shrimp

Maybe we need a super quick super healthy dinner this week because maybe we had too many fat slices of orange bundt cake followed by a fatter slice of lemon cake lately. That’s what happens when salt-rimmed margarita and guac filled Cinco de Mayo and cake cake cake on Mother’s Day all fall into one (delicious) weekend. All the cake was consumed with the biggest smile because hello! cake and margaritas! But it’s time for a healthy recharge right about now. You feel me?

Also maybe you want to see a video of this super healthy dinner? I just made one for you:

Guess what? We settled on a moving week! Which is super scary and stressful and awesome because (1) wow the beginning of June is very soon and (2) I have a work trip and 12837 things to do before that June week shows up. Can I be honest here? All of a sudden at age 30, I feel like an adult. Who owns a grown up home. With a kitchen renovation in the works. (Hold the phone, wait, what?) Still trying to process this. I mean at this point the new house is 50% dust, 50% moving boxes, and a bed. And it drives my anxious brain into overdrive.

Related: somehow the home we currently live in is exactly the same, but more like 50% dog hair tumbleweed, 50% moving boxes, and a bed.

But you know what makes all of this chaotic transition really worth it? Despite the mess inside, our new home is finally amazingly and blessedly feeling real. It’s about 2 hours from where we currently live (HI country life!) so we can’t visit the house on a daily basis. But the trips we take and the time we spend there is pure contentment. And it just makes me so happy that… 5 years, 2 apartments, and a teeny rental home later… feeling settled and putting down roots is right around the corner.

This whole home owning adult thing? It’s pretty cool.

Anyway. I wish I could tell you that I’ve been cooking up all of these wonderful and gorgeous meals lately because I’m a food blogger by day and food blogger by night. But my reality: I’m living in two places, the energy to cook wonderful and gorgeous meals = dwindling, and gray uncooked shrimp is actually very un-wonderful and un-gorgeous. Real life truth.

The combination of honey and garlic is music to my tastebuds, but you know what’s even better than that? We have a 20 minute dinner on our hands tonight. That’s why I love cooking seafood for dinner so often: it’s quick. The shrimp takes a whopping 5 minutes to cook on the stove, while the marinating takes another 15. Ok ok so whisking the marinade together will take an extra 12 seconds, but whatever.

In the marinade we have 3 familiar favorites: honey, soy sauce, and garlic. For a little extra flavor, I added some minced fresh ginger, but that’s optional. I just reeeeeally love honey + garlic + ginger.

I’d say the minimum marinade time is 15 minutes, but you can let the shrimp marinate all day long when you’re at work if that’s easier/if you can stomach the look of raw shrimp at 7am. The marinade serves 2 purposes. Not only will the shrimp take a soak in it, but it’ll be added to the skillet for a minute or 2 at the very end. Then you can serve it as a sauce over the shrimp/veggies/rice/whatever’s on the side. (Like what we do with the maple sesame salmon!) So not only is this dish healthy and quick with minimal ingredients, its convenience level is 10+++.

What might be my favorite of all is this little part: wonderful caramelized bits of honey and garlic stick to the pan and edges of the shrimp. Scrape it all up because YUM. ↓

Easy healthy quick dinners = my saving grace right now!!

20 Minute Honey Garlic Shrimp

Yield: serves 4

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Print Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup soy sauce (I use reduced sodium)
• 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
• optional: 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 lb medium uncooked shrimp, peeled & deveined¹
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• optional: chopped green onion for garnish

Directions:

1. Whisk the honey, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger (if using) together in a medium bowl.
2. Place shrimp in a large zipped-top bag or tupperware. Pour 1/2 of the marinade mixture on top, give it all a shake or stir, then allow shrimp to marinate in the refrigerator for 15 minutes or for up to 8-12 hours. Cover and refrigerate the rest of the marinade for step 3. (Time-saving tip: while the shrimp is marinating, I steamed broccoli and microwaved some quick brown rice.)
3. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Place shrimp in the skillet. (Discard used marinade².) Cook shrimp on one side until pink-- about 45 seconds-- then flip shrimp over. Pour in remaining marinade and cook it all until shrimp is cooked through, about 1 minute more.
4. Serve shrimp with cooked marinade sauce and a garnish of green onion. The sauce is excellent on brown rice and steamed veggies on the side.

Recipe Notes:

1. You can remove the tail or leave it on. Whatever's easiest!
2. Using leftover marinade is a debated topic. While you could boil it to rid any contamination, the flavor could possibly change. But do what you'd like. Usually I just make a little extra (like we do here) to use as the sauce.

adapted from Skinny Mom

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This honey garlic ginger glazed salmon + broccoli is on the table in only 35 minutes. Same flavors as today too!

And try my 30 minute teriyaki version!