Easy Shrimp Scampi with Zucchini Noodles

This easy dinner uses zucchini noodles in place of pasta for a healthier riff on shrimp scampi. Using store-bought zucchini noodles gets this low-carb dinner on the table in 15 minutes. Here's how we do it:

Plenty of shrimp scampi recipes start off with tons of butter. We use butter in our version too, but we combine it with olive oil, a combination we love because you get the rich flavor of butter with the heart-healthy benefits of olive oil. Shallots and garlic cook in the butter and olive oil combo until they're just beginning to soften and become fragrant. A little white wine and chicken broth are added next to give the sauce some volume, savoriness and acidity.

Next, quick-cooking shrimp are added to the sauce. To streamline prep, look for shrimp that come peeled and deveined. Shrimp is often treated with a host of preservatives - some of which can add a significant amount of sodium to your meal. Opt for shrimp not treated with sodium bisulfite, sodium tripolyphosphate (STP) or Everfresh. (Check out our guide on how to buy shrimp according to a dietician here.) We like to leave the tails on for presentation, but you can remove them before cooking if you prefer. In order to prevent the shrimp from over cooking, we remove them from the pan to finish the dish.

The last step is adding the veggies and mixing everything together! Cherry tomatoes add a minimal amount of prep work and a ton of sweet, tomato flavor. Multicolored tomatoes add a wow factor, but simple red cherry tomatoes work just as well. Zucchini noodles don't need to linger on the heat. A quick 1-minute warm-up in the pan is all they need before the shrimp is returned to the pan and everything is tossed together and ready to serve.

Yes! You can substitute 6 cups fresh spiralized zucchini or summer squash for the packaged noodles here. New to spiralizing? Learn more about how (and what) to spiralize here.

Additional reporting by Hilary Meyer