Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: Healthy and easy to make, this is the perfect weeknight dinner. A lemon and garlic sauce enhances this shrimp and vegetable stir fry. Add your favorite vegetables.
How long it takes: 30 minutes
Equipment you’ll need: large skillet or wok, sharp knife, cutting board, measuring utensils
Servings: 4
Tender pink shrimp, bright green asparagus and zucchini, crimson bell pepper, snowy white rice — doesn’t that just make your mouth water? With a hint of lemon and garlic, this lightly seasoned stir fry is perfect for warmer months.
Don’t you love a good stir fry? Ready in minutes, with crisp vegetables and a zesty sauce, it always hits the spot. We often make this chicken stir fry with ginger and basil, or this easy beef and vegetable stir fry. Another favorite with my family is sweet and sour chicken stir fry.
Healthy eating. At less than five hundred calories per serving (including the rice!), you can really feel good about eating this entree. We all know that vegetables are good for you, and most of us don’t eat nearly enough of them every day. Shrimp is a good source of protein and contains zinc and antioxidants that your body needs. See this article by Healthline to learn more .
About This Shrimp Stir Fry
There are three parts to this recipe:
- Fluffy cooked rice
- Meat and veggies
- Sauce
Cooking Rice
You’ll want to get the rice on first because steamed rice needs twenty to twenty-five minutes to cook which is a lot less time than the stir fry needs. We usually make Instant Pot white rice. It’s a fool-proof and hands-off cooking method. Don’t have a multi-cooker? Try my stovetop jasmine rice.
Ingredient Notes
As always, look for the printable recipe at the end of this post with complete instructions, measurements, and nutrition information.
- Shrimp: Frozen or fresh, you’ll need one pound of raw peeled and deveined shrimp, with tails off. Shrimp is a healthy protein that is low in calories.
- Easy Sauce: With just chicken broth and lemon juice, the sauce is simple, letting the shrimp and vegetables shine. A bit of cornstarch is added to thicken the sauce.
- Lots of Good-For-You Vegetables: Stir fries are a fantastic way to eat lots of veggies. This stir fry boasts asparagus, zucchini, red bell pepper, and onion. Feel free to exchange other vegetables that you may like better.
- Flavor: Lemon zest and garlic, salt and pepper, and fresh parsley are light and bright, perfectly enhancing the shrimp.
- Rice
How To Make This Shrimp Stir Fry
One of the most important things to do for a successful stir fry is to have everything ready before you get cooking. Once the pan is hot, things move really quickly and you won’t have time to stir up the sauce or chop veggies.
Hopefully you have the rice cooking already. Get out your wok or a nice big skillet. Chop the veggies, season the shrimp with salt and pepper, and stir up the sauce.
Ready? Here we go:
Heat your pan and add a bit of oil. Throw the shrimp in and watch them sizzle. Are they turning pink and curling up? Flip them over, and when they’re done, take them out of the pan and put them on a plate. That should take less than five minutes.
We’re on a roll now. If your pan seems dry, add a little more oil. Is your pan still nice and hot? Good! Add the onion, bell pepper, asparagus, and zucchini, in that order. Give them a vigorous stir, and throw in the garlic and lemon zest. Stir, stir, stir. Season with a little salt and pepper.
If you’re timing things, your veggies should achieve crisp tender status in about five to six minutes.
Give your sauce a quick little whisk in case the cornstarch settled, and pour it into the pan. Stir and watch the sauce begin to thicken and coat the veggies. Is your stir fry smelling really good? I hope so!
Stir the shrimp back into the pan, with a sprinkle of fresh parsley. Are you hungry? Because dinner is READY!
Usually, meat and vegetables are added to the pan separately. If you add everything all at once, the pan or wok cools off too quickly. Your stir fry steams instead of sizzles. Stir fry the meat, remove it from the pan, allowing the pan to reheat. Next, add veggies that take a bit longer to cook. Finish up with the veggies that cook quickly.
If your stir fry is mushy, two things could be happening. One: your pan isn’t hot enough so things are cooking too slowly. Two: you’re adding too much to the pan at once, causing the pan to lose too much heat. Slow heat steams and braises which is fine for simmering stews but not for your stir fry.
While vegetables and meat have lots of flavor, the sauce is really what makes a stir fry shine. Some ingredients that are added to the sauce for flavor are: garlic, red pepper flakes, citrus juice and zest, fresh ginger, toasted sesame oil, fish sauce, oyster sauce, etc. There are so many choices that it would be impossible to list them all.
Definitely not! Vegetables that are stir fried retain their crispness, bright color, and flavor. Fast and hot, stirring constantly, is what constitutes a stir fry. Boiling would really defeat the purpose of a stir fry.
Once in a while, if I feel the veggies are just too crisp for my intended audience (i.e., my kids), I’ll add a couple of tablespoons of water to the pan and cover it briefly so the veggies steam and soften. Not really the way it’s supposed to be done but it’s your dinner, and guess what, no one is judging you.
Recipe Variations
- Feel free to use different vegetables. Replace the suggested vegetables with broccoli, pea pods, mushrooms, carrots, celery, green bell peppers, etc. Choose what’s in season, on sale, or already in your fridge.
- Only have frozen vegetables? Stir fries can successfully be made with frozen vegetables. Don’t thaw the vegetables and make sure your wok or skillet is very hot before adding them.
- Vegetarian/vegan: Omit shrimp and substitute crispy air fryer tofu or baked tofu. Stir it in just before serving. Use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth in the sauce.
- Like it spicy? Add a pinch of red pepper flakes to add a little zing. Freshly grated ginger root adds spicy heat, too.
- Skip the rice. Try this stir fry with noodles, or zoodles (zucchini noodles), for a fun twist instead of steamed rice. Cauliflower rice is a good option, too.
- Looking for a heartier sauce? Try shrimp and broccoli stir fry. It has a soy based brown sauce that is sweet and tangy, somewhat similar to teriyaki.
Get a head start. While cooking stir fries is fast, prepping the vegetables can take a bit of time. The good news is that you can wash, trim, and cut the veggies up to a day ahead. Store them in a zip top bag or tightly wrapped bowl.
Thaw the shrimp overnight. In addition, if you remember to put the bag of frozen shrimp in the fridge the night before, they’ll pretty much be ready to use when it comes to dinner time. Give them a quick rinse, pat them dry, season with salt and pepper, and you’re good to go.
Refrigerate: This dinner is best eaten immediately but leftovers aren’t bad either. Store them in the fridge for up to two days.
Reheat: Heat leftovers in a skillet briefly to rewarm. If you’re in a hurry, reheat in the microwave on medium power for 1 to 2 minutes or until warmed through.
Free Meal Plans
Interested in a weekly meal plan that includes this recipe? Take a look at Meal Plan (#2), Meal Plan #16, or Meal Plan #71. You’ll find a wholesome recipe for each weekday plus a categorized grocery list. Let me do the planning for you this week! We add a new meal plan weekly.
Shrimp is perfect for last minute meal preparation. Don’t have any meat thawed? Frozen shrimp is ready to use in just minutes.
More Shrimp Recipes
Shrimp and Vegetable Stir Fry with Lemon and Garlic
Ingredients
- 1 pound raw shrimp, (20-30 per pound), peeled and deveined
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- ½ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper, divided
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- ¾ cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 large red bell pepper, diced
- ½ cup diced onion (about 1 small onion)
- 1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1 zucchini (8 oz.), cut into ½-inch pieces (about 2 cups)
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- Steamed rice and lemon wedges, for serving
Instructions
- Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels and season with ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
- In a small bowl, whisk broth, lemon juice, and cornstarch until smooth and set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp, and cook for 1-2 minutes per side or until shrimp is pink and cooked through. Remove to a plate.
- If needed, add another 1 tablespoon oil to the pan. Add onion, bell pepper, asparagus, zucchini, lemon zest, garlic, and season with remaining salt and pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until just beginning to soften, 5-6 minutes.
- Whisk chicken broth mixture one more time, and add to vegetables. Cook, stirring, until the sauce has thickened slightly. Add shrimp and parsley, stir to combine, and remove from the heat.
- Serve with steamed rice and lemon wedges.
Notes
- If you like a little heat, add ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes to sauce, or to taste.
- Nutrition information is based on 1 cup steamed rice per serving.
- Different vegetables can be substituted, depending on what you like or happen to have.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?Share a comment and rating below! I love hearing what you think!
Haven’t made any recipes yet but everything looks delicious. Would like to get more recipes .aaThanks Donna
Plenty to choose from! Happy cooking!
I’m ready to dig in!
I hope you love it!
This was EXTREMELY GOOD!!!!!!!!
So glad to hear you liked it! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
great stir fry, thank you, love all these vegetables with shrimp with the simple chicken broth lemon juice sauce! thank you
Thanks so much! I’m glad you liked it!