Some busy nights, I need a quick dinner for my family that is also healthy and delicious.
It’s tempting to just boil some hot dogs, or open a frozen dinner on those harried evenings spent driving back and forth from your kids’ gymnastics and soccer practice.
I’m sure you busy bees have felt the same way!
Sure, microwaving bowls of Cup o’ Noodles for dinner on these crazy nights is helpful every now and again.
But I don’t like giving my kids overly processed foods on a daily basis.
Dinners consisting of fast foods and convenience foods do happen, but if I have the ingredients on hand, I try to serve a home-cooked meal.
Sometimes all it takes is five extra minutes to whip up a meal you can feel good about feeding your family.
The key is choosing your ingredients wisely to create easy and nutritious dinners at home.
Shrimp is a great example of a healthy protein to have on hand for busy dinner nights, since it cooks very quickly.
My kids could probably exist on shrimp alone. If frozen shrimp is on sale at my local market, I like to pick up a bag to make easy tacos or throw into a quick stir fry or spicy pasta dish.
Or use it in this new and delicious recipe!
You’ll love our recipe for roasted cherry tomatoes with shrimp and feta cheese – it’s an incredibly easy shrimp dinner to make on any busy night.
Just by looking at it, you would never guess that it is so simple to make. And it’s a real crowd pleaser!
With parsley, garlic, and a squeeze of lemon juice, the flavors are fresh and vibrant – better than any prepackaged hot dog, I would say!
Serve over rice or thin spaghetti, or enjoy alone with a side of crusty bread.
Let’s not waste any more time – you’re on a tight schedule tonight! Read our recipe below now.
The Recipe
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 pints cherry tomatoes
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 1/2 pounds raw shrimp peeled and deveined
- 1/2 cup red pepper diced
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley chopped
- 4 ounces feta cheese crumbled
- 1/2 lemon
- Toasted French baguette slices for serving
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Coat the bottom of a 9x13” rectangular baking dish with olive oil.
- Place the cherry tomatoes, minced garlic, salt, and pepper in the prepared baking dish and mix well. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Add the shrimp and diced red pepper, then bake for 25 minutes more, until the shrimp is fully cooked.
- Remove the baking dish from the oven and add the chopped parsley and crumbled feta cheese. Squeeze the lemon over the dish. Mix well to combine.
- Serve the shrimp with crusty baguette slices, as an appetizer or light main dish.
Nutritional Information
Cooking by the Numbers…
Step 1 – Prepare Your Mise en Place
Preheat your oven to 425°F.
Gather all of your ingredients. Defrost the shrimp immediately if it is frozen. Peel and devein the shrimp if necessary. If you consider yourself a homemade guru, save the shells and use to make your own seafood stock!
Wash all of the produce well. I like to wash the cherry tomatoes in a colander, so I don’t lose any down the drain!
Peel and finely mince the garlic, or pass it through a garlic press.
Measure out the olive oil, and coat the bottom and sides of a 9×13” baking dish, using a silicone brush or pastry brush.
Step 2 – Combine and Mix
Place the cherry tomatoes, garlic, salt, and pepper in the baking dish and mix well until evenly distributed.
Bake for 15 minutes.
Step 3 – Dice the Peppers
While the tomatoes are roasting, roughly dice the peppers into small squares.
Step 4 – Add the Shrimp and Peppers
Add the shrimp and diced red peppers to the baking dish and mix well. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the shrimp is fully cooked.
Note that the baking time will depend on how large your shrimp is. If these are jumbo shrimp, you will need to give your dish more time to bake.
I prefer to chop these into smaller pieces before adding to the baking dish, or use smaller shrimp to begin with.
Step 5 – Garnish and Serve
While the shrimp bake, prep the garnish.
Remove the stems from the parsley, and chop the leaves.
Remove any seeds from one half of a lemon. You can juice it now using a citrus reamer, or squeeze it over the dish as is.
Crumble the feta, if you did not buy it pre-crumbled.
Once the shrimp is cooked, remove the pan from the oven. Toss in the chopped fresh parsley and crumbled feta cheese, and mix well.
Squeeze some lemon on top, and serve with slices of crusty bread.
Surf’s Up for a Quick Dinner!
Even when you are juggling your kids’ hectic schedules along with your own madness, you can still get a healthy and flavorful dinner on the table in under an hour.
No hot dogs. No prepackaged frozen dinners.
This fresh, delicious meal of roasted tomatoes with shrimp and feta cheese is the right combo of ingredients that are easy and quick to prepare for a home-cooked meal.
We have even more shrimp dishes you’ll want to serve for dinner very soon:
Do you have a favorite shellfish dish that you like to make when you’re pressed for time? What are your own tips for making fast meals? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Don’t forget to Pin It!
Photos by Felicia Lim, © Ask the Experts, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for more details. Originally posted July 21, 2015. Revised and updated March 20, 2017 with additional writing and editing by Felicia Lim and Allison Sidhu.
*Nutritional information derived from a database of known generic and branded foods and ingredients and was not compiled by a registered dietitian or submitted for lab testing. It should be viewed as an approximation.
About Jennifer Swartvagher
Jennifer is an experienced journalist and author. Her work has been featured on TODAY Parents, The New York Times Blog, BlogHer, Scary Mommy, and scores of other parenting and cooking publications.
I would love to serve this over pasta to my family! It seems like such a simplistic yet fun meal to make. I may have to forgo adding the feta, however, as my mother typically dislikes the strong taste and odor. Thank you for the article!
This would make a beautiful salad dish even without the shrimp. I think crusty bread on the side would be the way to go for me. For a pasta dish, I’d probably blitz the tomatoes in the blender somewhat before adding the shrimp, just so it would give the pasta some coverage.
Great idea!
Not gonna lie, it was the crusty bread in the picture that drew me in first. As I got a closer look, the rest looked very appealing. It sounds like the perfect dish for summer, if you ask me. Light enough to eat during hot weather, yet still very satisfying.
I must try this. It sounds like it would be good warm or chilled. Chilled, I think I’d serve it over fresh spinach leaves or romaine lettuce (or maybe a mixture of the two) instead of pasta or rice though. I’m looking forward to making this.
Yes, I always try to get the deveined shrimp, as well. I love that this has some of my favorite ingredients. Shrimp, roasted red peppers, and feta alone would get me, but add them to cherry tomatoes (I’ve never cooked with them, but love popping them in my mouth and salads), and pasta or rice, and I’m sold. I’d always add a side of crusty buttered french bread, if I had it, but if not, might even try it with biscuits.
What a wonderful dish; I live could live on prawns an rice in any combination. Sometimes I’ll eat shrimp in a pasta dish as well or in the form of a kabob.
A very different combination this one is. Baking the shrimp, hmmmm. I’d probably add a wild rice or some potatoes with this. It is also very light so that would have to be a lot of rice to help fill you up. The tomatoes and peppers will probably add some flavor to the prawn. I would add some raw tomato and pepper to this at the end.
I think that’s a great & relatively simple idea for a quick lunch on the go. Maybe even toss it into a mason jar for added simplicity? I would, however, likely upgrade the size of the shrimp. I know it adds to the cost but it also adds to the nutritional value as I would appreciate more protein.
I’ll probably try this without the shrimp. I know it’s the main part, but I love cherry tomatoes and feta cheese, and I think that even by themselves they sound delicious. It sounds like something my family would like as well.
It is a great family meal.
This looks absolutely delicious and something I could eat two or three times a week with no problem. I have friends coming round for supper tonight, so I am going to try this recipe out on them and serve it with some garlic bread.
Feta cheese with shrimp and tomatoes? Sign me up for that ASAP, it looks absolutely delicious and it’s probably a perfect dish for breakfast/brunch. I may have to go for a different type of bread though, something more soft that goes well with the rest.
This is a great quick meal idea and perfect for the summertime when tomatoes are in abundance! The bread looks amazing I might add!
Well anytime I see the word shrimp my ears perk up, and this one looks like another winner. I do not get to feta cheese as much as I would like wither, so I am glad to see that in here. The good news is that while shrimp is pretty expensive around here, this is the time of year when it is at its lowest price, so I can certainly take advantage of that. Looks great, and thanks for sharing.
I would really like to have this for lunch. I’ve been under the weather for a bit, so nothing has really sounded very good to me lately. This does! I have some grape tomatoes.. so they should work, yes?
Looking at the picture is making me hungry. I’m going to check this out. I think I’ll try to come up with some other combinations later as well. Maybe some blue cheese? Thanks for the recipe as well as the inspiration. I’m looking forward to making this.