Love Italian food? This delicious zucchini pasta with spicy shrimp Arrabbiata sauce will satisfy the carbs craving while providing nutrients, protein and fibre. It’s low-carb, paleo, Whole30 and gluten-free.
Good pasta is one of my weaknesses, but I have long gotten used to many fantastic paleo pasta alternatives such as zucchini noodles, seaweed pasta or spaghetti squash. These ribbon-making friendly vegetables go with most pasta sauces and provide many beneficial nutrients and fibre. Today, I want to share one of my favourite (and super simple) sauces with a little twist.
What Is Arrabiata Sauce?
Arrabbiata sauce is a simple yet rich tomato sauce with lots of garlic, chilli and olive oil – all essential Italian flavours in one pot. It goes with so many things!
I love seafood – rich in omega-3s and essential minerals – so I often add prawns (or shrimp) or even tinned salmon to this sauce, but you can easily grill some chicken or add ground up beef or diced cooked sausage. For a vegetarian version, use some pan-fried mushrooms or add chickpeas.
How To Make Zucchini Spaghetti
The easiest way to make zucchini noodles or spaghetti is with a vegetable spiralizer. If you don’t have a spiralizer to make the zucchini noodles, you can easily use a vegetable peeler to make ribbons instead.
The key to cooking zucchini (courgette) noodles is to barely cook them at all. You literally warm them up in the sauce and they are ready to go.
Some people sprinkle raw zucchini noodles with salt and let them sit for a few minutes before rinsing underwater. This is done so that the zucchini can release some of its juices and not get too soggy when cooked. But, I find that if you cook it only for say a minute or two, you don’t have to do the salt thing at all.
Feel free to sprinkle with grated Parmesan or crumbled goat’s cheese, or some nutritional yeast flakes. Bon appetit!
More Nutritious Low-Carb Dinner Meals
Vietnamese Meatballs With Broccoli Rice & Sriracha Mayo Drizzle
Grilled Chicken & Roasted Tomato Salad
Mongolian Chicken With Zucchini Noodles
Surf & Turf Salad (Beef & Shrimp With Creamy Dressing)
Cajun Lime & Honey Salmon With Tomato Cauliflower Rice
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Shrimp Arrabbiata Zucchini Spaghetti
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 25 mins
- Yield: 2 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: Braised
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
This paleo-friendly and low-carb zucchini pasta with shrimp Arrabbiata sauce is super simple and fast to make. Great for a midweek dinner!
Ingredients
- 2 medium green zucchinis, spiralized into noodles or sliced into ribbons
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 250 g / 0.5 lb raw large shrimp or prawns, peeled (I used defrosted prawns from the freezer)
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 1/2 red pepper/capsicum/bell pepper, finely diced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (or a little more if you like)
- 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes or chilli pepper (less if you like it more mild)
- 3 cloves garlic, finely diced
- 1 + 1/2 cups chopped tinned tomatoes/passata sauce
- 1/4 cup of grated parmesan or aged cheddar (optional, nutritional flakes can be used if you avoid all dairy)
- Freshly chopped parsley or basil for garnish (optional)
Instructions
Using a vegetable spiralizer or a peeler, cut zucchini into noodle ribbons. You can simply slice it as well. Set aside.
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Add the prawns and pan fry for 2 minutes, stirring a few times. Remove to a bowl.
Turn the heat to medium and add 2 more tablespoons of olive oil to the pan. Add the diced onion and peppers, and sauté for about 3 minutes, until lightly browned and softened.
Then add the salt, chilli and garlic and stir through. Pour in the tomatoes and mix well. Cook for a couple of minutes over medium heat, stirring a few times. You can add a little splash of water if the tomatoes start to dry up.
Now add back the prawns and the zucchini noodles. Stir together for a minute or two, until well heated through and combined. The zucchini should soften slightly but not too much as it will start to give out juice and will turn soggy.
Serve in bowls with some grated cheese, if you like, or some fresh chopped herbs.
Notes
Shrimp (or prawns) can be replaced with diced chicken. Pre-cook the chicken for 5-6 minutes before making the sauce.
You can use sweet potato noodles instead of zucchini noodles, or low-carb spaghetti such as shiratake noodles or konjac noodles.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bowl with 2 tablespoons Parmesan
- Calories: 475
- Sugar: 18.7 g
- Sodium: 1270.6 mg
- Fat: 26.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 5.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 31.2 g
- Fiber: 8.2 g
- Protein: 37 g
- Cholesterol: 208.5 mg
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This looks fabulous! Love the simple ingredients and what a beautiful dish! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks 🙂 It is the simplest thing in the world.
Hi Irey!
Do you have a recommended brand of spiralizer?
Thanks in advance!
This looks scrumptious! Such beautiful colors.
Absolutely drooling! This looks immense – I’ll be over at yours in 10 minutes 😉
★★★★★
Come on over Georgie 😉
I’m not easily imseesprd. . . but that’s impressing me! 🙂
Just made this dish, absolutely delicious! Thanks for sharing!
Super happy you liked it 🙂
forgot to rate in first post!
★★★★★
Amazing! I love to make prawn noodles. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
★★★★★
your recipes look delicious. i am eager to start cooking. many thanks
Quick, easy and very tasty. Good to replace pasta with courgettes
★★★★
Works surprisingly well, doesn’t it? I love it with either seafood or chicken.
This is one of my all time favourite meals. When zuchinni is in season, this would be on the menu once a week! I’d tweak it here and there every now and then with different flavoured sauces, but otherwise, absolutely delicious!
★★★★★
Glad you love it, I do to. Irena
So yumm, but why r the carbs so high in this.
★★★★★
It should actually be 20 grams per serving and not 31 grams. I checked the ingredients in the nutritional calculator and I think the canned tomatoes were inputted incorrectly. They pulled in the data for tomato sauce that’s maybe made with sugar, but I’ve just updated it with crushed canned tomatoes (with nothing added) and it’s more accurate. There is also 6-7 grams of fibre, so the net carbs are about 13-14 grams per serving. I hope this helps.
Really good and very tasty. Thank you for sharing.
★★★★★
Thanks, Grace 🙂