Fettuccine alfredo with shrimp and zucchini noodle pasta! This delicious meal is ready in just 30 minutes so it's an excellent option for a quick weeknight dinner. Instead of traditional pasta, I love using veggie noodles (also known as voodles or zoodles) to make lower carb, keto-friendly meals. This pescatarian deliciousness is also gluten free!
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Ingredients
- Fresh zucchini: spiralized into veggie noodles for a delicious, low-carb meal.
- Shrimp: adds tasty, filling protein to this dish! Chicken is another great option if you want to mix things up.
- Extra virgin olive oil: for sautéing shrimp.
- Heavy cream: the base ingredient for creamy alfredo sauce.
- Gluten free flour: thickens sauce! (regular all-purpose flour will also work if you aren't gluten intolerant).
- Three cheese blend: Romano, parmesan and asiago. A heavenly mixture of Italian cheeses.
- Salt, pepper, garlic powder & Italian seasonings: simple spices, lots of flavor!
- Fresh oregano: optional but AMAZING. We have fresh oregano in our herb garden this year so I had the pleasure of using my own home grown herbs in this recipe.
How To Make Zucchini Alfredo
Keep scrolling for complete recipe and instructions. We'll start here with a super quick rundown!
- Place a large pot of HOT salted water on the stovetop and turn heat to high. While waiting for water to boil, spiralize zucchini.
- Remove boiling water from heat. Soak zucchini noodles in hot water for 10 minutes.
- Drizzle a bit of olive oil into a large sauté pan and place on medium low heat.
- Combine shrimp and remaining olive oil in a small bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and mix until shrimp are well coated.
- Sauté shrimp and set aside (avoid overcrowding, cook in shifts if necessary). Turn heat to low.
- Whisk heavy cream, spices, oregano and gluten free flour together in a small bowl. Pour mixture into the empty sauté pan and stir until it begins to thicken. Add cheese blend and stir until melted.
- Drain zucchini noodles and pat dry with paper towels (or a clean kitchen towel).
- Add zucchini noodles and shrimp to the pan. Stir until ingredients are well coated in sauce.
- Plate and enjoy!
Special Equipment Needed
For this recipe you'll need a veggie spiralizer, or you might opt to purchase pre-spiralized zucchini at the grocery store (typically found in the frozen food section). I really prefer to make my own veggie pasta at home because it tastes much fresher. You can get fancy and buy a whole spiralizing kit (like the one shown below on the right). I personally use a simple, handheld spiralizer (left photo). Both options are really affordable!
Handy Tips
- Be sure to add zucchini noodles to hot water after your pot has been removed from heat and water has ceased boiling. You don't want to boil your noodles, you just want to soak them. Zoodles are fragile, so they don't need as much heat as regular noodles! We're going for kind of an "al dente" effect with our zoodles here and avoiding a mushy mess.
- Your alfredo sauce will be very thick before adding zucchini noodles. This is normal! Veggie noodles contain more moisture than regular pasta, so the water content in the zucchini pasta will thin the sauce out a little bit as you stir everything together!
Variations
Protein: make a vegetarian version of this recipe with grilled tofu (or leave the protein out all together and add extra zucchini noodles)! Chicken is also another great protein option for this recipe.
Add regular pasta: want some more carbs? Try half zoodles and half regular fettuccine! You may need a splash of extra cream as you'll have less moisture coming from zucchini noodles.
Cheese: I like to use a three cheese blend (parmesan, asiago and Romano). You can opt to use only fresh parmesan if desired.
More Zucchini Recipes
- Almond Flour Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins | Gluten Free!
- Zucchini & Summer Squash Casserole | One Skillet Meal
- Pumpkin Zucchini Muffins
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Zucchini Alfredo With Shrimp
Ingredients
- 2 large zucchini
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil *divided
- 16 oz. jumbo shrimp (raw) *thawed, peeled and deveined
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasonings
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon fresh oregano leaves *roughly chopped *optional
- 1 tablespoon gluten free flour *see note below
- 1 cup Freshly shredded 3 cheese blend (Romano, asiago & parmesan) *plus additional for topping *see note below
Recipe notes:
Gluten free flour: I normally use Bob's Red Mill 1-1 gluten free flour. Regular, all-purpose flour will also work if you're not worried about making this recipe gluten free! Three cheese blend: shredded three cheese blend (Romano, asiago and parmesan) can typically be found by the freshly shredded parmesan at the grocery store. You can also use parmesan cheese, solely, if preferred.Instructions
- Place a large pot of HOT salted water on the stovetop and turn heat to high. While waiting for water to boil, spiralize zucchini.
- Remove boiling water from heat. Once water stops boiling, add zucchini noodles to the pot and soak for 10 minutes.
- Drizzle ½ tablespoon of olive oil into a sauté pan. Place on medium low heat.
- In a small bowl, combine shrimp and remaining olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and mix until shrimp are well coated.
- Sauté shrimp for about 90 seconds on each side, until fully cooked through, and set aside. (*Tip: it's important to avoid overcrowding your pan, as this can result in a boiling effect from excess moisture. I typically cook my shrimp in two shifts and leave an inch between each).
- Turn stovetop heat to low.
- Measure heavy cream, Italian seasonings, salt, pepper, garlic powder, fresh oregano and gluten free flour into a small mixing bowl and whisk well. Pour mixture into the empty sauté pan and stir until it begins to thicken. Add cheese and continue stirring until melted. (*Tip: sauce will be very thick. Zoodles contain more moisture than traditional pasta. Once you stir them in, your sauce will thin out a bit. Avoid the temptation to thin sauce with additional cream)!
- Drain zucchini noodles and pat dry with a clean kitchen towel. Stir zoodles and shrimp into sauce until all ingredients are well combined.
- Plate and enjoy!
Karen Velinsky says
This looks so good! It is one of my husband's favorite, although I have never tried it with zucchini. I can't wait to make it for him...
stacey_olson says
Awesome! Let me know what you two think!
Ruthanne Combs says
This was delicious! My husband doesn't like zucchini so I made some Barilla gluten-free fettucine noodles as well. I mixed those in w/ my zoodles, but honestly, I think it would have been even better with just the zoodles. The tip for cooking shrimp was super helpful- I've never heard that and it worked so well! This recipe will be a repeat, for sure!
stacey_olson says
Thank you, Ruthanne! I'm glad it worked well to mix in some gluten free pasta with the zucchini noodles and I'm so happy to hear the tip for cooking shrimp helped you out! <3