Celebrate spring with this amazing recipe for lemony-garlic shrimp and asparagus with white bean puree that may just find you licking the plate.
Welcome to this week’s Tuesdays In The Garden. I’m excited to share with you my favorite dish made with one of spring’s first vegetables to produce in gardens lucky enough to grow it: asparagus. Asparagus is surprisingly easy to grow and comes back year after year with basic upkeep – learn more about growing it in The Ultimate Asparagus Guide: Grow, Harvest, Cook & Preserve. Find tips for more spring produce from our group after the recipe.
I wish I could adequately describe this shrimp and asparagus recipe to you. White beans, good. Asparagus, love it. Shrimp, yes. Garlic? Lemon? Yes, yes, it all seems like a nice combination, with the unique addition of the beans.
But I had no idea how good it would be. No idea. And then when something that tastes this good also looks this good- what? When you plate this up, it looks like something that you’d get at a fancy restaurant. The type where if I saw the waiter bringing this I’d roll my eyes a bit, thinking it’s one of those restaurants (you know, the kind that are more into presentation…).
All I would need, though, is one bite to understand that presentation and deliciousness can go hand in hand. And as long as you’re a fan of these ingredients like me, you are going to want many bites of this. I promise.
Shrimp and Asparagus with White Bean Puree
Some links in this article are affiliate links and if you click on them I will receive a small commission at no cost to you – thanks for your support!
As if flavor and presentation weren’t enough, how about simple and easy with whole food ingredients? Add some olive oil, butter, a bit of salt and pepper and maybe a red pepper flake or two and that’s the entire recipe right there.
Pretty, yummy, and uncomplicated. It just gets better.
This recipe consists of three very quick steps.
The first is briefly cooking the beans with garlic, lemon juice and water (I use the precooked beans I keep in the freezer, but canned would work, too) and puree them in the pan with an immersion blender (you’ve gotten yours, right?). If all you have is a regular blender, you’ll need to transfer the beans to the blender bowl first, but it works, too, just not quite as conveniently.
The second step is to whisk together the light dressing ingredients.
The third and final step is quickly cooking the onions and asparagus until just crisp-tender before adding the shrimp.
Since each step takes just a few minutes it all comes together in about 30 minutes.
To serve, place about 1/2 cup of the pureed beans on a plate, add some of the shrimp-asparagus mixture, and pour part of the dressing over the top.
And prepare to be amazed. Really, truly, honestly.
You will want to serve this with a good bread (easy artisan is of course my fav) to soak up all the beany-dressing goodness. Again, trust me on this, it’s either bread or licking the plate, so make it easy on your family and guests.
You’ve probably have figured out that I’ve made this a lot. When asparagus isn’t in season any more I make it with green beans and I think it would be a good with snow peas in later spring, too. I even made it once with small scallops. It’s all good.
- 3-4 cups cooked white beans (or about 2 cans)
- 4 Tb. lemon juice, divided
- 2 cloves garlic, minced and divided
- 1 tsp. kosher salt, divided
- ½ tsp. pepper
- pinch of red pepper flakes, optional
- ½ c. water
- 4 Tb. extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 2 Tb. chopped fresh parsley
- 1 Tb. butter
- 1 onion, cut in half then sliced thinly
- 1 lb. asparagus, trimmed and cut in 3 to 4 inch pieces*
- 1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined**
- Beans: Place the beans, 1 Tb. lemon juice, ½ tsp.each salt and pepper, 1 clove of the minced garlic, an optional red pepper flakes in a medium saucepan. Add ½ cup water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and puree with a handheld immersion blender (if using a regular blender or food processor, return beans to pan after pureeing). Keep warm over lowest heat.
- Dressing: Combine the remaining minced garlic clove and 3 Tb. lemon juice along with ½ tsp. salt, parsley, and 3 Tb. olive oil in a small glass measuring cup, whisking to emulsify. Set aside.
- Vegetables & Shrimp: Saute onions in 1 Tb. butter and 1 Tb. olive oil for 3-5 minutes over medium heat. Stir in asparagus, cover and cook for about 3-4 minutes just until crisp-tender. Add shrimp and cook until they turn pink, 1-2 minutes (pre-cooked shrimp only needs to be heated through).
- To serve: Place a quarter of the beans on each of four serving plates and divide the asparagus-shrimp mixture evenly. Pour the dressing over the top of each and serve immediately.
**This also is wonderful with scallops. Cook just the same as shrimp.
Tuesdays In The Garden
Click on over to these other lovely blogs and check out more ideas for spring gardening, growing and cooking.
Favorite spinach recipes at Hearth and Vine
Tips for growing peas at The Freckled Rose
Recipe Ingredients to Grow at Creative Living with Bren Haas
Tips for growing kale at Frugal Family Home
Where to buy heirloom seedlings at Simplify Live Love
Tips for growing rhubarb at Homemade Food Junkie
Note: this recipe was originally published in 2010 and has been updated with all new photos, formatting and printable recipe. Enjoy!
Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links and by clicking on them you help support AOC at no extra cost to you – thanks so much! Plus you can trust I’ll only share what I love. (You can always read our entire disclosure page here.)
This looks delicious! If I had shrimp in the house, I’d make it today. The substitutions sound delicious, too. I will try them all. Thank you.
Wonderful – I hope you get a chance to try it soon, Maureen!
Hi Jami,
This recipe sounds delicious! I love all the ingredients and am always looking for something new to make with fresh asparagus in the spring. The most surprising this was the beans. I typically go for rice or pasta but this is a nice new twist that I can’t wait to try.
I know – the beans are so different, though we do love a good bread to sop it up with, so it’s not totally low-carb at our house, though it could be. 🙂
I find any recipe that involves lemon and garlic my absolute favorite! Something about those flavors make my mouth water. I’m planning on starting an asparagus garden bed this year. I love how it’s a perennial crop, and we have such a short growing season here in New England so it’s perfect. Your recipe looks like something straight from a restaurant! I definitely need to invest in an immersion blender. So many things on my to-do list this year! I bet this would be delicious with scallops as well. I might just surprise my boyfriend with this recipe! Thank you for the delicious ideas and cooking motivation 🙂
Go for it, Angie – I think you (and your boyfriend) will love it, too!
Your recipe looks delicious, Jami! And I think I’m about to run off to my garden to see if I have any asparagus peeking up yet!
Yes – those first spears are so exciting to see in spring!
This is a delicious meal and for it to be ready in about 30 minutes is great. I can’t wait until I find a good deal on asparagus to give this recipe at try.
Hope you enjoy it, Shell!
Spring recipes like this make me want to get right out there and start in the garden. I can’t WAIT until it gets warm enough to harvest our asparagus crop for delicious dishes like this one.!
I know! I will have to be satisfied with purchased asparagus this year,though. 🙁 It will be one of the first things I grow in the new place we end up, for sure.
So good! I added a handful of flat leaf parsley (since I used white asparagus) and mushrooms then topped with gorganzola!
Your additions sound lovely, Jill – thanks for sharing!
Renee: Yeah! Though I don’t think anyone in my family would mistakenly call it dessert. 🙂
Absolutely amazing! My husband and kids raved about it. David slipped and called it “dessert.” So nice when I can make them all that happy!
Love this recipe! Found this link from Kayln’s Kitchen. My husband and I ate it up! My 2 year old ate some too. 🙂 We used cannellini beans and we were out of parsley so we used fresh dill instead. Wonderful!
This looks amazing! I can’t wait to tyr it!
Jenelle
This looks super delicious! I love asparagus.
Sarah- Yes, those were great northern. I did look at the page, and it’s good to know the differences, though, I too like them, use all the white beans interchangeably. The great northern’s are usually the cheapest white bean in the bulk bins, which is why I buy them. 🙂
Candi- Try this with scallops, or even go out on a limb and try it with chicken pieces. I still think it would be a great flavor!
Oh my goodness, Jami – I’m so thrilled that you posted this – it looks lucious and I can’t wait to try it. Thanks!
Wow!!! That looks so good! Now if I could just get the hubs to eat shrimp like that!
This looks and sounds delicious! We get navy beans from our farmer’s market and I wasn’t sure if they were the same as the beans you are using.
While trying to figure it out, I found this page comparing different white beans.
It looks like you are using great northern beans, right?