Paleo Blackened Shrimp “Alfredo”

Since graduation, I’ve been slowly working toward a normal (read: consistent) blogging routine and have even *gasp* started planning for next year. Part of planning involved reviewing our site analytics over the weekend. While Neil and I definitely don’t believe in obsessing over numbers, analytics are a useful tool that helps us learn more about you and how we can improve your experience in the future.

So what does that have to do with Blackened Shrimp Alfredo? Well according to analytics, “blackened shrimp” has led more people to our blog than any other keyword search. Seriously! When you Google “blackened shrimp,” our Blackened Shrimp Alfredo recipe is currently #3 in results. Pretty awesome, but in the new world order, not very Paleo-friendly. So to celebrate our little piece of analytics success, we decided to give our little hit recipe a bit of a makeover.

Ingredients:

For the blackened shrimp:
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon Old Bay
3 tablespoons Earth Balance
1 pound fresh shrimp, deveined

For the alfredo:
1 medium spaghetti squash
3 tablespoons Earth balance
1 13.5 oz can coconut milk (they seem to come in all sizes FYI)
1 tablespoons arrowroot powder
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, minced

Optional:
1 cucumber, sliced/halved/quartered (optional)
1 pound fresh green beans, steamed

Ingredients:

1. Pierce squash with fork or skewer in several places. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes or until the squash is fork-tender. Cut in half, scoop out and discard seeds. Scrape the flesh with fork to separate the spaghetti-like strands. (Note: you can also cut squash in half, cover lightly with plastic wrap and place in a bowl with 1/2-inch of water and microwave for 20 minutes on high or until tender).
2. To prepare shrimp, heat large sauté pan on high for 1–2 minutes. Add Earth Balance and minced garlic in the pan and melt to coat the pan. Once melted, add shrimp and remaining ingredients and stir to thoroughly coat with spices. Arrange shrimp in a single layer in the pan. Cook for two minutes without turning to sear on side 1 before flipping and repeating with side 2. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. To prepare the “alfredo” sauce, heat Earth Balance in a sauté pan over high and stir in minced garlic. Cook for one minute, stirring occasionally. In a bowl combine the coconut milk and arrowroot powder. Make sure the powder is thoroughly mixed into the coconut milk. Add the nutritional yeast and stir again thoroughly.
4. Add the coconut milk mixture to the sauce pan with the EB and garlic and add the remainder of the ingredients. Cook over medium high heat until it just starts to boil, stirring or whisking constantly until the mixture thickens. This should take about 5-8 minutes.
5. Add blackened shrimp to sauce and pour over pasta. Add additional vegetables (we did green beans and a cucumber, but you can add peas, broccoli, anything!) as preferred and top with additional nutritional yeast or spices to taste. Makes 4 large servings.

If you choose to add any extra vegetables, some additional steps and cooking time will be necessary. For instance, the green beans (which are not Paleo – legumes) were cooked ahead of everything because they required more time, and the cucumber was added toward the end because it required less.

This was perfectly light yet creamy and the flavor was awesome! I never thought I’d say this, but with a few veggie substitutions, pasta has been quite easy to leave behind!