Activities’ nights are exhausting and often we need an easy quick recipe to fill hungry bellies. Pasta dinners are my go-to. I like to do other things than pesto pasta, although my fresh pesto is quite delicious! This is a recipe I developed a long time ago and often shared with my then roommate, now sister-in-law.

Scrumptious anti inflammatory recipe

I may have been a student then, I was also healthy, so I created healthy stuff! This recipe is anti inflammatory: it contains turmeric, ginger, pepper, and olive oil, a bunch of veggies. It is dairy free, since I use coconut milk. The result is silky delish! Additionally, shrimp and turmeric make for a great pair. Finally, it’s quickly cooked and detoxed because my ingredients are pre steamed before mixing in the sauce on low heat in my sauté pan. This sauce served over your favorite pasta is a great way to finish the day with a scrumptious dinner and one of my favorite things to eat!

The Perfect Recipe for people with a medically restrictive diet

Versatile

Serve over pasta: You can pick to eat it over organic of gluten free spaghetti or linguine. For an even better result, try tagliatelle or parpadelle ! It also goes well over whole rice, even over small potatoes roasted in olive oil and garlic. Anything goes and can adapt to your specific diet !

You could easily replace shrimps with steamed chicken that can finish cooking in the sauce. 

It is dairy free, easy to digest!

Shrimps can be replaced with a white fish like cod easily, or even chicken; even tofu or chick peas for vegans. 

Filling: Don’t treat this sauce as a healthy side dish. This is really an entree ! Everyone comes out satisfied. 

In my opinion, it is perfect with al dente pasta noodles, whatever the style. I always get great compliments when I make it for friends ! You will love the crunchy sugar snap peas in the sauce!

Favorite Snap pea recipe

Why snap peas?

Vegetables come in all shape, size and texture, as well as nutritious advantages. And I love that diversity. Moreover, as a mom, I want my kids exposed to as many different foods as possible so they keep their adventurous and curious spirit with regards to foods. Most times, after a few exposures, they end up liking it enough to eat it whenever I serve it. 

With sweet sugar snap peas, it was not hard to get them to like it! They look different than other green vegetables, have a nice crunch. Kids bonus: you can open the pod and see peas inside, or eat the whole pod. Besides, unlike some legumes, sugar snap peas are very easy to digest.

Part of the legume family like beans, this bright green pea can easily be eaten whole, with the entire pod, raw or cooked ! Kids love it because it has sweet taste and a good crunch ! It has a wealth or health benefits listed here, most notably vitamin C, A, K, B-vitamins, and folate. I don’t pick my veggies based on the most healthy, but I like to vary, because each produce is its own specific gift from nature.

Better than snow peas

I originally made this dish it with snow peas, but I chose snap peas because even cooked, they remain crunchy. They have a more interesting texture for this meal. Besides, it does not have the annoying snow peas’ string that goes off when you bite them and gets stuck in your teeth ( my kids’ complaint). Bonus, they taste as good or better in this sauce.  

As a habit, I use fresh sugar snap peas. You can replace with garden peas or green peas too, although their shape is not as interesting visually, and they don’t crunch.  Make sure you cut the pea’s stem end before cooking!

A Simple recipe

It’s a very easy recipe. With a good steam cooker, you can pre steam your ingredients quite fast while your water boils the pasta. The sauce is also astonishingly simple to make ! Dinner can really be done in 15-20 minutes depending on how long your pasta needs. The rest is all about ingredients!

Ingredients

They are simple ingredients: you can all find them at aldi ! Even though I prefer sourcing my spices from Frontier Coop, in bulk when i use it a lot, because the quality of spice makes the biggest difference both in the nutritional value and taste of a dish. 

Snap peas of course

Parsley: it tastes amazing with turmeric and garlic sauce. It’s packed with nutrients including calcium, so it’s a bonus. For that reason I like to make parsley sauce with eggs to serve over what i call zucchini boats, or use to make green deviled eggs, or one family favorite, parsley apple sauce, a snack or side dish in which we dip carrots celery, snap peas and what not. 

Zucchini: Sometimes I add a zucchini, because there can never be enough vegetables in a good pasta sauce.

Shrimps: Sea food contains omega 3 fatty acids, and trace minerals like zinc (immunity), which contribute to hormone balance, critical for women’s health. Having sea food or fish several times a week is something to strive for, even if it is more expensive than standard chicken by the pound. I usually buy mine frozen. Thaw the frozen shrimps in water in a medium bowl. You can replace shrimps with a sea food mix!

Spices, salt and condiments

Turmeric powder, black pepper, coarse salt ( I buy grey sea salt, more rich in minerals) or kosher salt, minced garlic. You can replace fresh garlic with garlic powder ( 5 cloves = 1 1/4 tsp of garlic powder)

Fresh herbs: parsley, cut fine with a sharp knife.

Optional : green onion – last minute. It is a thin ingredient. If you want a little of the bite and keep health benefits, cook a short time. Also, you can use a bit of chili oil, to give this dish a spicy flair ! Let people serve themselves to taste.

4 steps for this 15 Minutes dinner

PREP:  Thaw the shrimps in warm water or for a few hours at room temperature. 

1- At about the same time, turn on the stove and heat up the steam cooker; tank filled at about 1/3 volume ( electric kettle helps. I use mine all the time to jump start dinner).  Also in a large pot, boil about 3 qt water. Once boiling, add the dried pasta and cook for the amount of time recommended.

2- When the steamer is steaming abundantly, place the large shrimps in the steamer basket and cover. Cook 3 minutes. 

3- In a large sillet, pour a few tbsp olive oil and turn on the stove on low heat. Mince the garlic and add it in. Keep the heat low not to burn the oil. Add some salt.  Once cooked, transfer shrimps to the skillet on low to medium heat for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, steam the snap peas, zucchini, and shallot for 2 minutes. 

4- Open the coconut milk can, pour into the skillet. Add 1 tsp salt, turmeric and ginger, pepper, mix. Transfer veggies into the sauce, mix. Add the parsley, and 2 tbsp olive oil. Salt to taste. 

Serve over al dente pasta. Sprinkle with sheep cheese – easier to digest to lactose intolerant people ( Manchego or Pecorino Romano are sheep cheeses) or aged Parmesan cheese ( usually healthier and lower in lactose)

Optional, if you want to give your snap peas a nice sear or like sauteed snap peas, you can steam them with the shrimps (3minutes) and transfer into the sauté pan before pouring the coconut milk into it. Don’t sear too long: 2 minutes is enough, even on low heat.

Cooking technique tips

• Cooking sugar snap peas: Steaming them for 2-3 minutes gives it the perfect texture.
• Warning: it is hard not to overcook shrimps. Keep the cooking tome short ( 3 minutes, 4 maximum for large raw shrimps) to get the perfect texture or they will shrink and get chewy.

Equipment: 

– A good steam cooker – my preference goes to the French Vitaliseur steam cooker ( learn more here) and why i insist so much on steaming foods.

– Large skillet or sauté pan. It does not matter whether it is a nonstick skillet or stainless: the sauce is heated on low to medium heat, so nothing sticks. Easy wash. 

– Optional: an electric kettle. When steam cooking, this is very helpful and speeds up the process. I swear by owning one ! If you like my recipes and cooking style, I recommend looking into it as an investment. You can find good temperature control kettles for under $60 and it saves a lot of time in the long run.

FAQ

I cooked my shrimps in advance or I have leftover cooked shrimps. How long do I keep them?

Cooked shrimps are safer than raw shrimps. As a rule, I don’t keep them in the fridge after 4 days.

Explain how to reheat steamed shrimps

Steaming is a fantastic blanching instrument. It means it will get rid of bad bacteria and steam out toxins. This is what you do when you cook shrimps in a steam cooker. By extension, you blanch, i.e. disinfect shrimps from bacteria when you reheat shrimps in the steam cooker. Therefore, this is the safest and most perfect place to reheat shrimps. I always reheat in my steam cooker, for about 2 to 3 minutes, depending on size. And then sear I in the pan, or cook in the sauce. I never had any problem following this cooking method with shrimps, fresh or frozen.

Is the steaming method of reheating shrimp good for other seafoods?

Yes.

Now to the recipe card. Bon appétit!