Creamy Shrimp Scampi with Kale & Peas

I love any meal with sauce.  Especially a garlic based sauce.  And I love shrimp.  So scampi is, naturally, a favorite of mine.  I’ve made it many ways over the years and tested out many recipes, but I’ve never been fully satisfied with any of them.  Some have too much lemon; too much oil; not enough garlic; not enough sauce.  None of them are perfect. 

This one might not technically be a scampi.  You might consider it more a shrimp and garlic butter sauce, but it’s the best of everything I’ve come to love of the scampi dishes I’ve tried: Lots of garlic & parsley, a little lemon zing, and loads of shrimp. 

Mine is also swimming in sauce.  I like the sauce to be on the creamy side, so I use milk or cream from time to time. But if you aren’t a saucy person, feel free to omit that entirely. And if you’re paleo, definitely feel free to use bone broth. It will be just as tasty.

The first recipe I ever tried for scampi included paprika, but most don’t.  I found that I like it more with paprika.  I use smoked.  It adds a nice bit of depth. 

And, of course, no meal in my kitchen is complete without veggies.  I like to combine them with the shrimp and sauce, instead of serving on the side.  You know, to spread the saucy love. I usually use whatever veggies I have on hand, or whatever I’m in the mood for.  This time around, I was in the mood for kale and peas.  Feel free to use whatever veggies suite your fancy.  Or none, that’s fine, too.  Weird…but fine.   

I like to serve this over pasta.  I prefer to use quinoa pasta.  Most of them have corn flour as an ingredient, so if you have a corn allergy and are gluten free, you can use quinoa or rice. I’ve been known to serve a lot of traditional pasta dishes over quinoa. If you’re strictly paleo, you can make zucchini pasta or just eat it as-is.  If you’re not serving it over something, however, I would tone it down with the sauce quantity, unless you want to be dining on scampi soup, which, actually, now that I’m thinking about it, doesn’t sound too bad. 

Oh, I forgot to mention, there’s bacon. Delicious, tender, salty, crunchy bacon. Yum.

So, here you go.  Creamy Shrimp Scampi, coming right up. 

24 oz shrimp

1 box angel hair

8 oz kale, chopped

16 oz peas

paprika

salt and pepper

juice of 1 lemon

10 garlic cloves, minced

1 tbsp parsley

1/2 - 1 c. milk, cream, or broth

6 slices bacon

Fry bacon in a pan over medium-low heat.  Drain most of the fat, then fry shrimp in pan with a bit of the bacon fat. 

In another pot, cook kale & peas with the lemon juice, paprika, garlic, and parsley for about 15 minutes, or until the kale is tender. 

Transfer shrimp & any accumulated liquid to the veggie pot.  Add cream.  Simmer for a few minutes.

Serve over pasta, topped with bacon crumbles.