Sheet Pan Shrimp with Sesame Broccoli

Much like the "one bowl" phenomenon, sheet pan supper came out of nowhere last year as a "new" trendy but totally doable for virtually anyone. The idea is minimal prep time, followed by roasting pretty much everything together in a single layer while you do something else (have a glass of wine, hang out of the family, do more work, go for a jog...), ultimately resulting in a scrumptious meal that is much more flavorful than you might expect. This sheet pan shrimp with sesame broccoli from Whole30 Fast and Easy follows along with that premise - chop some broccoli into florets, slice a lemon into thin rounds, make a little dressing to coat, roast for 20-25 minutes while you let the shrimp sit in melted butter, garlic, and soy (or coconut aminos), then add the shrimp to the sheet pan, and 6-12 minutes later (depending on shrimp size) dinner is ready to serve.

I've eaten some really great sheet pan dinners, but I've also made some really lackluster sheet pan suppers. This sheet pan shrimp with sesame broccoli fell solidly in the lackluster category for me.There wasn't enough toasted sesame oil to properly coat the broccoli while it roasted, so it didn't get as toasted and crunchy on the edges as oven-roasted broccoli deserves to be. My shrimp were little rock shrimp because that's all that was available at our neighborhood market when I got there after work. I rinsed and patted them dry, but I guess I didn't do a thorough enough job, because my shrimp didn't pick up any flavor from the butter-garlic-soy dressing they were tossed in. Instead, most of the sauce was lost to the parchment paper and I wound up eating a dinner of properly cooked but unexciting shrimp and broccoli.  Given my experience with this recipe, I've made a few tweaks to get it to a place where I feel like making this sheet pan supper justifies the cost of the shrimp (mostly, more sauce and a bigger punch of flavor). If you're looking for a major hit of soy-like flavor out of this dish, you'll want a little teriyaki or similar style sauce to drizzle on top.

Adapted from Whole30 Fast and Easy

Sheet Pan Shrimp with Sesame Broccoli

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Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 4 cups (250 grams) broccoli florets from 1 head or 2 small crowns
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 medium lemon thinly sliced into rounds, seeds removed
• 12 ounces extra-large shrimp* peeled and deveined, patted dry
• 2 cloves garlic minced very fine
• 4 tablespoons clarified butter or ghee melted and cooled to room temperature
• 1 tablespoon coconut aminos or tamari/soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds for garnish

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line a rimmed half-sheet (or larger) baking pan with parchment paper.
  
• In a large bowl, massage the broccoli florets together with the sesame oil, olive oil, salt, chili pepper flakes, and lemon slices. Spread out the dressed broccoli on one half of the sheet pan. Roast for 20 minutes, until the broccoli begins to brown. Stir the broccoli around and flip the lemon slices over.
  
• Meanwhile, in the same large bowl, toss together the shrimp, garlic, butter, and coconut aminos.
  
• While broccoli roasts and the shrimp marinates a little, toast the sesame seeds in a small skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 7-10 minutes. Set aside until serving.
  
• After the broccoli has begun to brown (after about 20 minutes), add the garlic-soy-butter shrimp to the other half of the sheet pan in a single layer. Continue roasting the broccoli, lemon slices, and shrimp for 6-12 minutes, until the shrimp just pink, opaque, and firm to the touch.
  
• Serve immediately (over rice or something else if desired), with a sprinkle of the toasted sesame seeds.
  

Notes

*If you use a smaller shrimp, adjust the cooking time. I used tiny rock shrimp and they took about 6 minutes to roast.