This Sheet Pan Shrimp and Cauli Rice is the easiest sheet pan dinner! Shrimp, peas, cauliflower rice, seasonings, and Rosso pesto sauce all come together on one pan for a delicious springy meal.
Sheet Pan Shrimp and Cauli Rice
Featured comment
Made this tonight – probably doubled the amount of pesto and the cream at the end is really good. We loved this and it could not have been easier.
Susan
This recipe is sponsored by ALDI ♡
Yum to the yum to the yummy yum yum!
We’re loading a sheet pan with cauliflower rice and roasting it up with some sun-dried tomato pesto, throwing some juicy shrimp on top and a handful of springy green peas, brushing it with butter, and finishing with salt, pepper, and lots and lots of lemon juice.
And, optional, but if you want it to be a little richer, more like a risotto, just pour a little cream on the pan at the end and stir it up – that cauliflower rice will cling together just a little bit and ultimately do its job making you happy, so happy, eating a nice big pile of vegetables.
Simple Sheet Pan Dinners To The Rescue
As if the food itself isn’t enough (SHRIMP LEMON BUTTER PEAS CAULI RICE WHERE CAN YOU GO WRONG), this recipe is so embarrassingly easy! Am I saying this too much lately? (In case you’re just joining us, we are in the middle of our SOS Series and it is a collection of 15 lifesaving recipes, 7 ingredients or less, and everything is easy, and hi, easy recipes are awesome.)
I need to tell you – I have been buying shrimp and salmon WEEKLY from ALDI this spring. Literally, not exaggerating, every week. I am a little bit particular about my seafood and I’m not going to lie, I would have never expected ALDI – yes, budget-friendly ALDI – to be my most-frequented place for seafood this spring, but it has been just that. I just add one package of shrimp and one package of salmon to my Instacart order by default each week, and we eat these light, wonderful, springy seafood-based meals, and it has become something of a habit.
Also purchased from ALDI: everything pictured here. Cauliflower rice, Meyer lemons, peas, olive oil / butter, and that delicious little jar of Rosso pesto sauce.
You basically have two steps here.
Step one: put everything on the pan.
Step two: eat.
Get a little lemon juice up in there, drizzle with more butter or oil, go after it with the salt, pepper, and any other seasonings you like…
And here you are. Minimal (I mean, really, MIN-I-MAL) effort for a meal that feels delicious and beautiful enough to serve for company. Even if it’s just you, in sweats, looking for something nutritious and really yummy, without a lot of work, tryna make it through another day, again. I can relate.
Source notes: I was introduced to a sheet pan cauliflower rice recipe when I made the Sheet Pan Jambalaya from Charlotte’s cookbook (her blog is Clean Foodie Cravings). It’s such a great method! We’re revisiting the method here with a new flavor profile.
Common Questions About Our Sheet Pan Shrimp and Cauli Rice
Can I use fresh cauliflower rice?
You can! Fresh cauli rice works great here.
How long can I store leftovers?
Leftovers can be stored in the fridge in a sealed container for 2-3 days.
I have a seafood allergy. What can I sub for shrimp?
Chicken – like, for example, Never Any! Fresh Antibiotic Free Chicken Breast Tenderloins from ALDI would be a great sub. Also – several people on our team are superfans of the Never Any! Spinach and Feta Chicken Sausage (extremely flavorful, extremely convenient) which would also be super yummy sliced up and baked on the sheet pan in this recipe.
Sheet Pan Shrimp and Cauli Rice
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
This Sheet Pan Shrimp and Cauli Rice is the easiest sheet pan dinner! Shrimp, peas, cauliflower rice, seasonings, and Rosso pesto sauce all come together on one pan for a delicious springy meal.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1 bag Season’s Choice Garlic Herb Riced Cauliflower (use 2 bags for a higher cauli-to-shrimp ratio)
- 2 tablespoons Prianno Rosso Pesto Sauce or similar sauce
- 1 lb. Fremont Fish Market Jumbo EZ Peel Raw Shrimp, tail off
- 1 cup Simply Nature Organic Frozen Sweet Peas
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons butter
- up to 1/4 cup heavy cream (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
- fresh lemon juice to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Mix cauliflower rice and pesto sauce directly on the sheet pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
- Arrange shrimp and peas on top of cauliflower rice. Sprinkle shrimp with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and brush with butter. Bake for another 5-7 minutes.
- Add cream and stir to combine, directly on the pan. (This makes it a bit more creamy, almost like a risotto.) Season with salt, pepper, and fresh lemon juice. Voila. Effortless.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Roast
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: cauliflower rice, sheet pan dinner, shrimp recipe
Thanks to ALDI for sponsoring this post.
Filed Under: All Recipes Cauliflower Fish and Seafood Gluten-Free Healthy Lemon Main Dishes Quick and Easy Sheet Pan SOS Series Spring Sugar-Free
April 15, 2021
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
Sorry, I’m gonna be that person 😬😂 I am guessing you can’t sub regular rice? Any other substitutions?
Sometimes you can find pre-cooked frozen rice (I get it from Whole Foods). I wonder if that would work!
Oh, that’s a good idea! Worth a try! Thank you!
If you give it a try, we’d love to hear back!
Hi Trish! Correct, regular uncooked rice can’t be subbed in this recipe. You could try other types of veggie rice or just use your favorite vegetables that you like to roast!
This recipe was perfect for a quick but delicious weeknight meal. I watched Lindsay make it on Instagram and thought I’d try it. I am not typically a fan of substituting cauliflower for rice, traditional pizza crust, etc., but my husband and I devoured this meal! He would have eaten more 🙂 Definitely adding this one to our rotation.
Awesome, Steph! So glad you enjoyed the cauli rice in this recipe! Thanks for the comment!
As soon as I saw Lindsay make this on Instagram stories I haddd to make it! It’s so good! I have a ton of food allergies, dairy being one of them, for the heavy cream substitute I did about 1 TBSP of vegan cream cheese mixed with enough almond milk to make it cream-consistency and mixed that in. I didn’t have pesto so I just did some tomato basil sauce. Oh my, it was amazing and so easy! Thank you🤤😁
So awesome that you made it dairy free! Thanks so much for the comment!
This looks yummy! What might be a healthy substitute for the heavy cream?
Half n half? Evaporated milk? (But that’s a bit of left over milk after using just a bit.) Hubby has to have his half n half here…so it’s always in the fridge.
I made this last night- DELICIOUS!
And, I didn’t add the butter or the cream at all.
In that first step, instead of pesto, I stirred in some salsa I had in the fridge (habañero salsa- what a kick!) but when the shrimp and peas were done, I just served it.
SUPER tasty. Used frozen shrimp, that I ran under cool water for a minute or two just after I put the pan in the oven, and then let sit for 20 min while the first layer cooked.
Did I mention how delicious this was? 🙂
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed it!
You could simply omit the cream. The flavor is still really amazing without it! Or, you could try sour cream.
The shrimp and cauliflower rice are defrosted, but the green peas are frozen? Did I get this right?
The bag of shrimp says raw, but both the bag of peas and cauliflower say “frozen.” Without directions to thaw, I’m assuming you bake everything as purchased (raw or frozen). The first 15 min bake would defrost and parcook the cauliflower.
Hi Brooke! The shrimp in the photos was fresh (not frozen), but if using frozen shrimp, we’d defrost first. The cauliflower rice and peas went straight from freezer to the pan.
I made this tonight for myself and hubby and absolutely loved it. I used basil pesto, no cream, although I would if I’d had some, and also had no lemon. Will be making this again and doubling it, I could have eaten more. Super fast and easy!!
So glad it was a hit, Denise!
Made this tonight – probably doubled the amount of pesto and the cream at the end is really good. We loved this and it could not have been easier.
So glad you enjoyed it, Susan!
Just to make sure, you do NOT peel the shrimp before putting in oven?
We peeled the shrimp before cooking!
Yum! Really good… we topped with some shredded Parmesan. This recipe has a lot of variation possibilities too. Thank you!
Oh also, I couldn’t find sun dried tomato pesto… so I bought store bought basil pesto and sundried tomatoes in oil. Blended some together to get a yummy taste… worked beautifully
You’re so right! Lots of fun flavor combinations you could dream up for this recipe!
Video is sloppy and doesn’t match the recipe ingredients. I get that you’re pretending to be too busy to cook and don’t have any butter :/ but at least have an accurate recipe to video. Different cauli rice, no,olive oil mentioned…. it’s your job, and you’re getting sloppy…..I tried it for lunch and it could be easily done in one pan on a stove.
Ouch, Cia! Real people here with real feelings. There’s obviously no rule that says internet comments need to be kind and considerate, but it amazes how me how comments like this one are written as though there is no actual person on the receiving end. If Lindsay and her team’s work isn’t meeting your (tough) standards, it may be time to start your own food blog so you can do it your way.
Hi Cia! I don’t believe we have a video posted for this recipe at the moment. Perhaps you’re seeing the video from the Sheet Pan Jambalaya recipe?
Cia is referring to the videos on POY’s Instagram stories where Lindsay doesn’t have butter and subs in olive oil instead. The only actual mistake that she’s calling you sloppy for is that the written recipe here says Plain cauli rice and the one Linds used is the Garlic and Herb cauli rice. Not a big deal, and definitely not “sloppy” 🙂
Hi Cia, actually either plain or garlic herb cauliflower rice would be just fine in this recipe. And yes, this recipe can work on the stovetop as well but I preferred the sheet pan version because I found that the cauli rice gets a better texture when roasted.
For recipes that are better suited to your style – more professional and exact, with less behind-the-scenes documentation of real-life moments (such as being out of butter) – I would recommend higher-end food sites like Saveur, MilkStreet, or Bon Appetit. Take care!
Delicious! Finally learned how to use my Ninja food processor and it turned out great. Used up some sun- dried tomatoes and some frozen homemade pesto, roasted a red pepper and made a modified pesto. My husband loved it and the texture was great. Leftovers were just as good. I will definitely make it again. I love the commentary writer!
Love your variations! Thanks so much for the comment!
Super yummy! I used Aldi’s tomato & basil sausages since my hubby has a shellfish allergy and it turned out great! Will definitely make again! Thanks!
Oooh, great idea! So glad you both enjoyed it!
Ohhhh thank you for this suggestion! I really wanted to make this recipe but both my husband and I hate shrimp so I was trying (and failing!) to think of a suitable alternative.
This was amazing and my picky kiddos loved it. I used bruschetta sauce from Delallo so good!! Oh and no one complained about cauliflower rice.
This was amazing and sooo easy! We loved it and can’t wait to make it again (maybe even variations of it?). Thank you!
You’re so welcome, Danielle! Let us know if you make any variations!
Made this tonight, so good and easy! Made while watching 2 young kids so SOS approved. I used 2 bags of cauliflower rice and left out the cream and butter. Next time I may sub 1 bag of frozen regular rice to be a little more filling.
So glad you enjoyed it, Candice! If you give the recipe a try with regular rice, we’d love to hear back!
Just made this tonight and it was seriously the best! I used asparagus instead of peas, kept all the cooking time the same. Absolutely one of my favorite dishes! Really easy too!! Will be on repeat!
Great idea to use asparagus! So glad you enjoyed the recipe, Bree!
I really loved this recipe! I always have Aldi cauliflower rice and peas in the fridge, and it’s endlessly adaptable depending on what kind of protein and sauce options I may have on hand. I was skeptical about the cream at the end but it really was so good. Will definitely make again.
Glad to hear it, PJ!
This is really flavorful! I was skeptical about the cauliflower rice but it was great! I also love that everything can be found at Aldis. I used all the products mentioned from Aldis and this will be a new favorite
We love hearing this, Savannah! Thank for the comment!
I made this 2x in the past week, and it is killer. Thanks for giving me an easy, delicious, veg-filled meal.
We love hearing this, Alexa! So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I love Aldi!! We get their frozen sushi grade ahi tuna all the time for at home sushi bowls and that red pesto is my secret ingredient in gravy and other sauces
Awesome! We love hearing about everyone’s Aldi finds!
I was really excited to make this because Aldi is my go to for groceries. I had to adjust because my Aldi didn’t have the pesto, so I used a vodka sauce instead. I also used minced garlic instead of powder and added some diced tomatoes that I had leftover from a different recipe. I was so happy with how this came out! This will definitely stay in my dinner rotation.
Love hearing that you were able to adapt the recipe based on what was available at your Aldi! Thanks for the comment!
What could you substitute for pesto sauce? I’m allergic to tree nuts and can’t use it. Would a marinara or even diced tomatoes work?
Yes, marinara sauce would work! Chopped up sun dried tomatoes would be great too! I realize this is an SOS recipe, but if you’re up for making homemade pesto, this recipe is tree nut-free!
This was so easy and delicious. Substituted peas with fresh asparagus. Served along with rigatoni in a spicy arrabiatta jarred sauce. Thank you for this recipe series. Grateful for your site. Also, now I know how to prepare cauliflower rice! Have been intimidated by it for too long!
Sounds amazing, DJ! Thanks so much for the comment!
I made this as is but with dairy free substitutions since I’m dairy free and it was PERFECT. I was nervous about the texture but the peas added that little bite that I needed and the flavor was fantastic. I will 100% make this again and again!
Glad to hear it worked out with dairy free substitutions!
OKAY. I have to say, I was skeptical of this recipe but I am trying to eat more seafood and low carb meals and I love POY, and the SOS meals so I figured I’d try. And WOW, so good!!! I don’t regularly shop at ALDI so I didn’t have the pesto sauce, but I made my own using things I had in my house (sundried tomatoes, almonds, garlic, rosemary and olive oil all in the food processor). I used plain frozen cauli rice and frozen shrimp that I defrosted, frozen peas and regular lemon and this was just delicious! Loved the idea of roasting frozen cauliflower rice. I will definitely be making this again especially because I have a ton of leftover pesto sauce! Great recipe!
So glad you enjoyed it, Laura!
Delightful. And so easy! Made one pan with shrimp for me and one with scallops for husband who has shrimp allergy. He loves his too
We loved this so much during the SOS series that I’m already remaking it! So easy and so so delicious! I might double the cauliflower rice the second time!
This was so quick and easy! Trying to find new ways to get my one-year-old to eat vegetables has been difficult and this cauliflower rice combo was a win. Also a way to sneak veggies to my husband 😉 Definitely adding to our meal rotation!