A quick grilled shrimp recipe with a special Mediterranean sauce. Makes a great appetizer; or serve it for dinner with rice or your a favorite pasta! See the step-by-step tutorial below.
Where I grew up, a shrimp recipe–or any seafood recipe for that matter– is deemed successful only if it had loads of garlic.
Today’s grilled shrimp recipe does begin with garlic–a whole head of it, in fact. But, I’m taking more of a modern Mediterranean twist with it.
WATCH HOW TO MAKE THIS GRILLED SHRIMP RECIPE
First, to tame it’s pungency, the garlic is roasted whole. The added bonus here is the hint of sweetness and earthiness that is brought to life when garlic is roasted.
The mellowed roasted garlic and fresh cilantro become the main ingredients for the sauce in which the quick grilled shrimp will immediately bath! A combination of lime juice; white wine; and good extra virgin olive oil completes the sauce. And a little chili paste adds a spicy kick.
What to serve alongside this grilled shrimp recipe?
This grilled shrimp is great served tapas-style with your favorite crusty bread, along with other small plates like this fattoush salad; creamy hummus; or fried eggplant and green peppers. Browse our “Small Plates” section for more ideas.
To serve it for dinner, make sure to double (or even triple) the amount of sauce, and toss in your favorite pasta to complete the meal!
Here is the step-by-step tutorial for today’s Grilled Shrimp Recipe
(Scroll down for the print-friendly recipe)
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F (you’ll need the oven to roast the garlic).
Peel, devein and rinse the prawns. Pat dry with a paper towel. Season with salt and pepper. Place the prawns in fridge until ready to grill.
Trim top of the garlic head off; leave the garlic intact and do not peel. Drizzle with a little olive oil. Roast the garlic in the 400 degrees F-heated oven for about 10-15 minutes or until slightly tender and fragrant. When ready, remove from oven. Let cool briefly. Peel and crush or chop the garlic finely.
In a small bowl, combine the garlic with the cilantro leaves, lime juice, white wine, olive oil and chili sauce (or chili flakes). Whisk together and set aside.
When ready, heat a cast-iron grill or griddle to medium high. Dress the prawns with some olive oil and grill for 3-4 minutes or so on each side. You want to achieve some char, but be careful not to overcook.
Remove from heat and coat the prawns with the roasted garlic and cilantro sauce. Alternatively, serve the sauce on the side instead.
Grilled Shrimp with Roasted Garlic-Cilantro Sauce
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 16 mins
- Total Time: 26 minutes
- Yield: serves 4 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Easy Mediterranean style grilled shrimp with roasted garlic cilantro sauce. Perfect as an appetizer, or double the sauce and toss it with your favorite pasta!
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb uncooked prawns
- Salt and pepper
- Early Harvest or Private Reserve extra virgin olive oil
Roasted garlic-cilantro sauce:
- 1 small head garlic, top trimmed off
- 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 lime, juice of
- 1 tbsp dry white wine
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp chili sauce like this one
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
- Peel, devein and rinse the prawns or your choice of shrimp. Pat dry and season with salt and pepper. Place the prawns in the fridge until ready to grill.
- Trim the top of the garlic head off, but leave the garlic intact. Drizzle generously with olive oil. Roast the garlic in the 400 degree F-heated oven for about 10-15 minutes or until slightly tender and fragrant. When ready, remove from the oven. Let cool briefly. Peel and crush or chop the roasted garlic as finely as possible.
- Now prepare the roasted garlic-cilantro sauce. In a small bowl, combine the roasted garlic with the remaining sauce ingredients of cilantro, lime juice, white wine, olive oil and chili sauce. Whisk together and set aside.
- When ready, lightly oil and heat a cast-iron grill or griddle to medium-high. Dress the prawns with a little olive oil and grill for 3-4 minutes on each side. You want to achieve some char, but be careful not to overcook the prawns.
- Remove the prawns from the grill to a bowl and coat well with the roasted garlic and cilantro sauce. Transfer to a serving platter. Alternatively, transfer the grilled prawns to a serving platter and simply add the roasted garlic-cilantro sauce on the side.
- Serve with pasta or rice and a green salad for dinner; or simply as a party appetizer. Enjoy!
Notes
- Recommended for this Recipe: Our Private Reserve Greek extra virgin olive oil (from organically grown and processed Koroneiki olives!)
- Visit our store to browse our spices, olive oils and bundles!
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
Keywords: Grilled Shrimp, Garlic Shrimp, Shrimp, Garlic-Cilantro Sauce
Looking for more seafood recipes? Here are some more favorites
Mediterranean-style Oven Baked Salmon in Foil
Recommended for this recipe: Cast Iron Grill or Skillet
Sara Ibarra says
This was really filled with flavor. Family loved it.
★★★★
Suzy Karadsheh says
Awesome, Sara! Thank you!!
Susan Gobrial says
Quick and easy
★★★★★
Suzy Karadsheh says
Awesome! Thanks for giving it a try!
scott says
Wow…
I just finished plating this – we ate like ravenous wolves…
Three artistic allowances. 🙂
– I marinated the shrimp in salsa verde prior to cooking.
– Shrimp kebabs over the grill.
– Tossed with your absolutely incredible cilantro garlic sauce – definitely 5 stars – and served over quick-sauteed zoodles.
Thanks!!!
Suzy Karadsheh says
Thanks so much for sharing, Scott! Love these ideas!
Bohemian Chef says
I made this fabulous dish. It was AMAZINGLY easy abd delishous. I’m going for round two for the Scandal finale . With a glass of wine of course
★★★★★
Suzy Karadsheh says
Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing!
William Smith says
Ahh! The best recipe I’ve ever had. Just loved the dish with a small amount of salsa and some fresh tomatoes. Thanks a lot for sharing the wonderful recipe with us.
★★★★★
Benita says
I made this for my husband and I tonight and it was so delicious! It’s also simple to make!
Suzy Karadsheh says
Awesome, Benita! This is one of my favorites !
Jen says
Made this last night and it was delish! I doubled the sauce but kept the chili at the same amount (thank goodness because it was spicy), used 4 heads of roasted garlic and tossed it with some spaghetti. Make sure to add a little pasta water to help create a sauce like consistency. It was amazing!
★★★★★
Suzy Karadsheh says
Awesome, Jen! I am so glad you enjoyed it!
Denise says
I made this recipe and it was fantastic!!! My husband and I were licking our fingers! So flavorful and addicting! I made babaganush with garlic naan and a tomato cucumber salad. We had a crisp Bolla Soave and that was our Saturday date night at home! Thank you for such a delicious recipe?
★★★★★
Suzy Karadsheh says
Denise, that’s wonderful! I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe as part of date night! 🙂
Maureen says
Made this shrimp dish….delicious!!! The dipping sauce was excellent. put it on a bed of zucchini noodles! I also made the fatooush salad.Thank you for a great salad!
★★★★★
Suzy Karadsheh says
Maureen, thank you so much for trying this and the fattoush! Two of my favorites! Love the idea of zucchini noodles.
Michele L says
HI Suzy,
Yes I made this too on Father’s day. Served it as an appetizer. THey loved it. Our eldest son left with copies of your recipes. Yes I’ll be making it again. It was easy!
Suzy Karadsheh says
Awesome, Michele! Thank you thank you for the kind feedback!
Arron says
Hi Suzy,
Great recipe. Made it last night and served it with a salad. Healthy and tasty.
Thanks
★★★★★
Suzy Karadsheh says
Awesome, Arron! This is always a hit at my house too.
lindsey says
what can you add in replace of wine
Suzy Karadsheh says
Hi Lindsey, so the dry white wine is a very small amount here. You can substitute with a white wine vinegar. Or you can omit the white wine adding more lemon juice and olive oil. Enjoy!
Timothy & Lori McGuinness says
Hello Suzy,
We had some leftover savory mushroom steel cut oats risotto and were looking for a prawn recipe to compliment it. It didn’t take long to find your recipe; we typed ‘prawn recipe’ into the search engine and then looked at the photos… yours was the clear favourite.
We made the dish last night and absolutely loved it. We’re going to have the leftovers on pasta tonight and think it would be perfect on homemade pizza too. Thanks so much for posting.
★★★★★
Anne says
My family loved this. I served it with rice that I seasoned with lemon and terregon and made it a meal. We will be roasting garlic more often in our home. 🙂
Suzy Karadsheh says
Awesome, Anne! Thanks so much for sharing. I am glad to hear you all enjoyed this. XOXO
Zahra Fahd says
Hi Suzy, I really wanna try my hands at this recipe! It looks so easy and yum! But where I stay, I cannot find dry white wine, cud u please suggest an alternative for it!!:) Thank u;)
★★★★
Suzy Karadsheh says
Hello, Zahra! Thank you so much for your question. I have been away from my office and just now am able to connect my laptop, sorry for the delay. Yes, you can eliminate the wine here, and I would simply adjust the lime juice and olive oil to your liking to compensate for the missing 1 tbsp wine. Or, you can use 1/2 tsp mild vinegar such as white wine vinegar and adjust from there. Enjoy!
David Richani says
Hola, mi sugerencia para sustituir el vino blanco, sería agregar una cucharada adicional de jugo fresco de limón y una cucharada de miel de abejas
Hello, my suggestion to replace the white wine, would add a spoonful of additional fresh lemon juice and a tablespoon of honey bee
Suzy Karadsheh says
Hello David! Yes, your idea to sub the white wine for more lemon juice and a little honey would completely work here! thanks for sharing!
Carol Little says
This was SO good. My husband couldn’t stop commenting on it. And thank you for posting a link to the chili sauce you used. I was thinking of using a Cajun hot sauce but the quantity had me concerned. Clicked on the link and realized that I had the same sauce you recommended in the fridge. My husband also suggested that I use your sauce recipe with scallops. We served this tonight with barley (cooked with Rotel tomatoes and cheddar cheese) and a caesar salad.
★★★★★
Suzy Karadsheh says
Carol, thank you so much for taking the time to share! The sauce would be great on scallops as well…Good idea!
Sylvia says
It looks so good!!!
The recipe looks simple enough, but there are so many types of hot sauce, what do you recommend???
Suzy Karadsheh says
Hi Sylvia, you really can’t go too wrong with hot sauce. Just be sure it’s a chili sauce that is not sweet like this one for example http://amzn.to/1V7yMoO
Abullock says
This was really flavorful, easy to make, and light (so you don’t feel terrible after eating it!) I added chicken with the shrimp and almost liked the chicken better since is soaked up more flavor. I love anything with cilantro!
★★★★★
Suzy Karadsheh says
Wonderful to hear! I like that you added chicken…I’ll have to try that sometime! Hope you find more recipes to try.
Jacquline Futch says
Love baking with little foil packets and especially with salmon. Copper River Salmon goes pretty quick as it’s season is gone before you can blink, but Costco usually carries it. This looks sensational. Thanks!
Suzy Karadsheh says
Jacquline, thanks for stopping in! Isn’t cooking salmon in foil so easy. If you try my salmon baked in foil, let me know how you like it!
Jennifer Dias says
Our new favorite dish!! The sauce is amazing and so easy!! Do you happen to post the nutiritional information anywhere?
★★★★★
Suzy Karadsheh says
Jennifer, so glad to hear you liked this shrimp recipe! It’s a favorite of mine as well. At this point, I do not list the nutritional information, but there are some great apps out there to help you with that. This is a fairly light recipe though 🙂