Easy rice bowl recipe! This classic Italian puttanesca sauce is simmered with shrimp and ladled over rice for an easy, healthy meal. 336 calories and 5 Weight Watchers SP
Shrimp Puttanesca Rice Bowl Recipe
The beauty of an easy rice bowl recipe is that you can make top it with almost anything to suit your tastebuds. This shrimp rice bowl, with the briny, salty taste of a classic puttanesca sauce, easily slid onto the "make again" list in our house. Truth be told, my family will take bowl meals almost any way they come. My Avocado Salmon Poke Salad Bowl is a favorite with my boys (and me!), while my husband would opt for a Chicken Burrito Bowl almost any day of the week.
Always easy, always flavorful - rice bowl recipes are the way to go when you need to put a healthy dinner on the table quickly.
If you're following a low sodium diet, puttanesca sauce likely isn't doctor-approved. However, if you can afford to make the indulgence once in awhile, the capers, olives and anchovies add a wonderful depth of flavor, along with the garlic and tomatoes.
What if I hate anchovies?
For all of you anchovy haters out there, the anchovy flavor isn't detectable. Rather, it's add a wonderful layer of briny flavors to the sauce. In fact, they sort of "melt" into the olive oil when cooked in the first step of this recipe. My kids make all sorts of dramatic gagging sounds when I order anchovies on a pizza, but they gobble up this sauce with abandon.
Tips for making this rice bowl recipe:
- Start by heating the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet. When cooking the garlic, anchovies and red pepper flakes in the olive oil, use the back of a wooden spoon to break down the anchovies as they cook.
- The next step is to add the canned diced tomatoes, capers and kalamata olives. If you prefer a smoother sauce, use canned crushed tomatoes in place of the diced tomatoes. San Marzano tomatoes (affiliate link) have the best flavor and they'll truly make a difference to your sauce. However, other brands of canned tomatoes will work well, too.
- Wait until the end of cooking to add the shrimp to the sauce so that they don't become overcooked and rubbery. It will just take about 3 minutes for them to cook in the simmering sauce.
- I like to use brown rice for these bowls, but white rice, quinoa (affiliate links) or even cauliflower rice are great substitutions. If you make and freeze quinoa as part of your weekly prep session, this dish will be even easier to make! Just pull out some portions of frozen quinoa, pop it into the microwave and you're done.
This is definitely making it onto our list of easy weeknight recipes. If you are constantly looking for new healthy weeknight meal ideas (like me!), be sure to follow my Healthy School Night Recipe board on Pinterest. It's full of fantastic ideas from many of my favorite bloggers.
Other shrimp recipes:
Shrimp & Zucchini Stir-Fry with Miso Lime Sauce {Cookin' Canuck}
Sauteed Shrimp, Snap Peas & Pistachios with Basil {Cookin' Canuck}
Salt & Pepper Prawns with Creamy Avocado Dressing {Supergolden Bakes}
Grilled Shrimp Salad wit Honey Lime Vinaigrette {Joyful Healthy Eats}
Printable Recipe
Shrimp Puttanesca Rice Bowl Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 3 anchovy fillets rinsed & chopped
- ¼ - ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 28 ounce can petite diced tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons capers
- ¼ cup pitted & quartered kalamata olives
- 1 pounds shrimp shelled and deveined
- ¼ cup minced Italian parsley
- 2 cups cooked brown rice
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet set over medium heat.
- Add the garlic, anchovies and crushed red pepper flakes. Break the anchovies down with the back of a wooden spoon. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the diced tomatoes, capers and kalamata olives. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Add the shrimp and simmer until the shrimp are just cooked through, turning partway through, about 3 minutes. Stir in the parsley.
- Divide the brown rice between 4 bowls. Top each portion with ¼ of the shrimp mixture.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published on September 9, 2013, and was updated on August 12, 2019.
Disclosure: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Laurie {Simply Scratch}
Perfect weeknight meal! Love it!
Jersey Girl Cooks
Easy weeknight meals are the best. Great dinner!
Rachael @ Set the Table
This is just lovely! Perfectly comforting and full of delicious flavors I'm sure. Thanks for another great recipe! -Rachael
Kristi @ Inspiration Kitchen
BTW, pinning! I can't stand it - it looks SSSOOO TASTY!
Kristi @ Inspiration Kitchen
Oh my - could this look any more delicious??? I think not! My mouth is watering, and I want this right now!!! Seriously, I want to pick that little shrimpy off the top, pop it in my mouth and then dig in for all the rest of that goodness. Yummo, yummo, nummy in a bowl. Count me in!
Donna
Just changed my dinner plans!
Renee - Kudos Kitchen
YUM! This looks delicious. I'm turning more and more to shrimp lately as my favorite form of protein. I love how quick cooking and tasty it is.
Kiran @ KiranTarun.com
I could devour these in bowls. Seriously 😀
Lauren @ Climbing Grier Mountain
I adore puttanesca!! I'll take a big bowl, PA-LEASE?! 🙂
Heather
Dara. OMG. Puttanesca is one of my favorites ever, but I've never tried it with shrimp OR rice! Definitely just pinned this for dinner 😉
Laura (Tutti Dolci)
I love puttanesca, gorgeous!
Barbara | Creative Culinary
One of my favorites...I love anchovies and capers so a sauce with them AND garlic? Plus the shrimp twist? Perfect!
Lana @ Never Enough Thyme
I've always enjoyed a good puttanesca sauce and adding shrimp to the recipe could only make it that much better! Great idea, Dara.
Sommer @ ASpicyPerspective
Great recipe, Dara! Perfect weeknight meal!
Paula - bell'alimento
You can never go wrong with puttanesca or shrimp. Gimme.
Ali | Gimme Some Oven
I love puttanesca! This sounds so comforting and delicious!
Kevin @ Closet Cooking
This looks and sounds so nice and tasty!
Liz @ The Lemon Bowl
I will cry if I ever have to follow a low sodium diet - mostly for foods like kalamata olives and capers!! This looks amazing!
Tieghan
This looks great and I love the spin on a classic Italian dish! Perfect and easy for weeknights!