Creamy Tuscan Shrimp And Learning About Rice Pilaf

We had some Royal Red Shrimp in the freezer that needed to be used so I went to my blog in search of dishes we have rated highly in the past.  We made this dish a few years ago and thought it was delicious and great for a keto diet meal but this time we served it over rice pilaf. The original recipe for Creamy Tuscan Shrimp came from the “Gimme Delicious” blog and can be found by clicking on the link.

Creamy Tuscan Shrimp – Adapted from Gimme Delicious

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

1 pound shrimp, cleaned and tails removed

salt, (to taste)

pepper, (to taste)

4 cloves garlic, (minced)

1 cup halved cherry or grape tomatoes

4 cups baby spinach, rough chopped

¾ cup heavy cream

¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Instructions:

Heat oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil is super hot and the butter has melted, add the shrimp and a generous sprinkle of salt & pepper, sautee for 1 minute.

Remove shrimp from pan and set aside.

Add the garlic, tomatoes, and spinach to the same pan. Saute for 1 minute or until the garlic is fragrant.

Stir in the heavy cream, parmesan cheese, and basil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until sauce is slightly reduced about 2-3 minutes. Return the shrimp to the pan and stir to combine. Taste and adjust salt if needed.

We ate very little rice when I was growing up and over the years, I’ve usually shied away from restaurant meals that included rice pilaf thinking it was just rice with some flavorings in it.  But when I read a recent blog post for rice pilaf, I discovered there is more to it than I thought including pasta and since we’ve been eating more rice lately, I opted to make it to go with the shrimp rather than plain cooked rice.

For the recipe I used the one for Perfect Rice Pilaf from Andrea on her “Life Made Simple” blog which she describes “Savor the simplicity of our Perfect Rice Pilaf. A foolproof recipe that guarantees a burst of flavor in every spoonful, making your weekly meal rotation irresistibly tasty!”  Since I followed the recipe as written, I won’t reproduce it here but you can find it at the link.

We served the shrimp over the rice.

The Verdict:

The meal was really delicious and the shrimp worked very well with the rice pilaf.  I liked the rice pilaf just fine but it won’t replace potatoes and pasta as my preferred starch but I won’t avoid it any longer.  I got the rice a little salty and can only assume it’s because I used salted butter so be careful with that.

And what about the leftovers - just mix them together and store.

And it may have been even better the next day after all of the flavors married.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

3/24/24 meal date