Lemon Garlic Shrimp Pasta (20-Minute Meal!)

Light, fresh, and delicious lemon garlic shrimp pasta. This shrimp pasta recipe is made with shrimp, lemon, shallots, garlic, basil, and spaghetti. An easy 20-minute dinner!

If you’re looking for a light and fresh shrimp pasta recipe, this is for you!

Its lemony flavor along with the butter, garlic, and shallot make this dish the perfect weeknight meal. You can use any thin pasta or skip the pasta and, enjoy this lemon garlic shrimp over white rice. Either way, this dish is ready in just 20-minutes!

Here’s how you can bring it to life in your kitchen.

Ingredients You’ll Need

• Thin pasta. You can use spaghetti, capellini, linguine, or angel hair.
• Unsalted butter. I recommend you use unsalted butter as it gives you complete control over the flavor of a recipe.
• Minced shallots + garlic. You can use onions, instead, if you prefer.
• Large shrimp. Shelled, peeled, and deveined shrimp is best for this recipe.
• Fresh lemon juice + zest. You can get 1/3 cup of juice from 4 lemons.
• Chopped fresh basil and lemon slices as garnish.

How To Cook Shrimp

It’s always a good idea to buy large shrimp that is shelled, peeled, and deveined. The shrimp does not have to have the tails on, this is totally up to you. For this recipe, either frozen or fresh shrimp will work. Although, if you are using frozen shrimp, you want to make sure to bring it to room temperature before you start cooking.

When you’re cooking the shrimp, you want to make sure all your ingredients are prepped beforehand. This way you avoid overcooking the shrimp. If you cook the shrimp longer than 4 minutes, you may end up with a tough, rubbery texture which is no good.

How To Make Easy Lemon Garlic Shrimp Pasta

• Prep ingredients. Make sure all your ingredients are prepped and ready to go. This reduces your chance of overcooking the shrimp.
• Make the pasta. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain then return the pasta back to the pot. Add a drizzle of olive oil on top to keep the pasta from sticking together. Set aside.
• Cook the aromatics. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 1 minute then add the minced garlic and cook for another 30 seconds.
• Cook the shrimp. Add the shrimp to the skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes until pink. Careful not to overcook the shrimp! Remove the skillet from heat.
• Add the lemon juice. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and pepper to the skillet over the cooked shrimp. Taste and adjust salt/pepper to your liking.
• Combine everything together. Toss in the cooked pasta until well combined. Garnish with basil.

You may also like:

• Shrimp Ceviche Stuffed Avocados
• Shrimp in Garlic Sauce (Camarones Al Ajillo)
• Basil Chimichurri Shrimp Skewers
• Low Carb Shrimp Scampi Spaghetti Squash
• 15-Minute Shrimp in Garlic Sauce (Camarones Al Ajillo)

Originally posted in March 2017. Updated in March 2021.