Spicy Shrimp Stir-Fry With Peppers

It’s no secret that I love to make stir-frys for dinner. A meal that is fast and easy, healthy, and only uses one pan checks all my boxes. Like most of my other stir-fry recipes, such as my go-to beef and cabbage stir-fry, this spicy shrimp stir-fry recipe was born on a night when I had 20 minutes to get dinner ready, nothing in the fridge, a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer, and an abundance of fresh squash and peppers in the garden.

Spicy Shrimp Stir-Fry With Peppers and Onions

For this, I used a mixture of spicy and sweet peppers, but it can easily be adapted with just sweet peppers to tone down the heat. You can use whatever size shrimp you like. I like to use the little salad shrimps because they are just the right size for little mouths. I used precooked shrimp for this stir-fry, but if you’d like to use raw ones, you absolutely can. They’ll just need to be cooked a little longer. (If you’ve never cleaned and peeled shrimp, check out this video.)

How to Serve

Frequently, stir-frys are served over rice or rice noodles. While we do eat white rice occasionally, I prefer to make my noodles from vegetables with a spiral slicer.

This stir-fry is great as is, but if you think it needs noodles, I suggest leaving the zucchini out of the stir-fry and turning them into zoodles (zucchini noodles) instead.

It’s always a win when a thrown together meal turns out and in fact becomes a favorite family recipe. My family enjoyed it, and it took under half an hour from start to finish! It’s absolutely one we’ll be making again.

Spicy Shrimp Stir-Fry Recipe

Katie Wells

A simple stir-fry made with shrimp, summer squash, peppers, onions, spices, and optional cream cheese sauce is a fast meal idea.

4.50 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 20 mins

Total Time 25 mins

Course Main

Cuisine Chinese

Servings 6 servings

Calories 510 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 4 sweet peppers
• 2-3 spicy peppers (optional)
• 2 medium onions (chopped)
• ¼ cup olive oil (or coconut oil or butter)
• 3 medium summer squash
• 1 lb precooked shrimp (thawed)
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp cumin
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• 4 oz cream cheese (optional)

Instructions

 

• Thinly slice the peppers and onions.
• Melt olive oil, coconut oil, or butter in a skillet or wok on medium-high heat.
• Toss in the onions and peppers and saute. 
• While the onions and peppers are cooking, peel the squash and cut down the middle lengthwise.
• Cut the squash into long strips and then into ½ inch pieces.
• Add them to the skillet or wok.
• Saute for 10 minutes or until almost cooked.
• Throw in the defrosted, precooked shrimp.
• Stir in the spices.
• Continue cooking until the shrimp are heated.
• Add the cream cheese if using and stir well to melt.
• Serve immediately.

Notes

You can use raw shrimp, but it may be a little extra work -- they will need to be peeled, cleaned, and the tails removed.

Nutrition

Serving: 1½ cupsCalories: 510kcalCarbohydrates: 16.7gProtein: 67.6gFat: 19.1gSaturated Fat: 6.3gCholesterol: 6.8mgSodium: 1133mgFiber: 4.5gSugar: 9.1g

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Like this recipe? Check out my new cookbook, or get all my recipes (over 500!) in a personalized weekly meal planner here!

If you’d like to try more stir-fry recipes, here are some others that I’ve made:

• Moroccan Stir-Fry
• Chinese Chicken Stir-Fry
• Pizza Stir-Fry
• Sausage Squash Stir-Fry
• Chicken Apple Stir-Fry

What’s your favorite stir-fry recipe? Share below!