Delicious Shrimp Recipes to Make for a Summer Evening Treat

Our collection of easy shrimp recipes to make for a summer treat includes recipes for a classic Mexican shrimp cocktail for coctel de camarones, an endearingly retro Australian prawn cocktail, refreshing Vietnamese prawn spring rolls or shrimp summer rolls, Spanish garlic shrimp, and ginger scallion noodles with sweet plump prawns – or shrimps!

This compilation of deliciously simple shrimp recipes will make you easy shrimp dishes – or prawn dishes, as the crustaceans known as shrimps in North America are known as prawns in most other countries, where shrimps are a different species and smaller.

Shrimps and prawns are perfect summer eating. If you’re not by the sea, they’ll soon take you there once you dig in. Shrimp dishes also feel like a treat due to the increasingly high cost of fresh seafood in many places. Frozen shrimps and prawns work too.

We’re in the midst of the sultry Southeast Asian monsoon season here in Cambodia, but we’ve been lucky in that we haven’t had to suffer through the scorching heatwaves that many northern hemisphere countries have in recent months.

So it’s with our friends and readers in North America and Europe in mind that we’re sharing this short round-up of delicious shrimp recipes to make this weekend for a cooling summer treat. We’ll be adding a few more shrimp recipes – or prawn recipes if you prefer! – over coming weeks, so do bookmark this page if you’re a lover of shrimps – or prawns!

Before I tell you about our shrimp recipes, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo. You could buy a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; book a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or buy something on Amazon, such as a cookbook for culinary travellers, a classic cookbook for serious cooks, or gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers. Now let me tell you all about our best shrimp recipes.

Shrimp Recipes to Make for a Summer Treat

These easy shrimp recipes make a fantastic weekend summer treat when you don’t want to spend too long in the kitchen or don’t want to cook at all.

Cambodian Pomelo Salad with Prawns Recipe – Traditional Dish, Modern Presentation

This Cambodian pomelo salad with prawns recipe has been a favourite since we moved to Cambodia and it’s a breeze to make. It’s another traditional dish that can be served in a more contemporary style for entertaining and that’s just what we did with this more modern presentation.

Salads are almost always a component of a Cambodian meal and this Cambodian pomelo salad with prawns recipe has the fresh, clean flavours you want to accompany a stir-fry, soup, stew or curry. Sometimes served with pork, this version uses large, fresh shrimps for protein.

This was another traditional dish, along with the sweet pork belly with boiled eggs and beef lok lak, that we took inspiration from when we developed our creative Cambodian canapes over the New Year holiday.

Cambodian Pomelo Salad with Prawns Recipe – Traditional Dish, Modern Presentation

Classic Mexican Shrimp Cocktail Recipe for Coctel de Camarones

One of our best shrimp recipes, this classic Mexican shrimp cocktail recipe makes coctel de camarones. It’s the perfect shrimp dish to make for a sultry summer weekend and should be washed down with icy Mexican cervezas.

This is the kind of prawn cocktails in tall old-fashioned glasses that you’ll be served in Mexico at marisquerias – restaurants, eateries and market stalls specialising in mariscos or seafood, from ceviche and seafood soups and stews to fried seafood and grilled fish.

In Mexico City’s markets, where I first became addicted to Mexican shrimp cocktails, they come in the sort of glasses that ice cream parlours served sundaes in back in the day – the glasses I blissfully scooped plump prawns out of coated in a spicy tomato sauce on our first trip to Mexico, vowing I’d live off those the entire six-week holiday.

Traditionally served chilled, this Mexican shrimp cocktail makes for a cooling appetiser to kick off a seafood feast, and is the best treat for a sweltering hot day. If the weather’s not warm where you are, it’s worth turning up the heat to pretend it is just to indulge in these.

Classic Mexican Shrimp Cocktail Recipe for Coctel de Camarones

Prawn Cocktail Recipe for the Retro 70s Starter

This classic prawn cocktail recipe makes another of our best shrimp recipes – or prawn recipes, as we call shrimps ‘prawns’ in Australia, where shrimps are a lot smaller. It’s my take on the retro appetiser popularised in the 1970s that will never go out of style.

Tiger prawns are boiled quickly in their shells so they’re just done are peeled, tossed in a creamy tangy ‘seafood sauce’, and served on a bed of lettuce salad, dressed with the same sauce.

So many fashionable dishes from the 1970s have made a comeback in recent years – devilled eggs, beef Stroganoff and chicken Kiev to name a few (oddly enough, all Russian dishes, and I’ve no idea what that’s about). Along with the prawn cocktail, they’ve never gone out of style for me, because they’re part of my culinary heritage, embedded with countless memories.

As a child growing up in Sydney’s suburbs in the 1970s, the prawn cocktail was as much a part of our Australian summer culinary traditions as the pavlova, riverside picnics, backyard barbecues, and fish and chips by the beach.

Prawn cocktails magically appeared before me at the fancy harbourside restaurants at many a Sunday lunch while my parents and friends were still perusing menus and the waiter was popping bottles of bubbly. They did their job, keeping me occupied while the adults chatted, until the oysters arrived.

Classic Prawn Cocktail Recipe for the Retro 70s Starter that Never Goes Out of Style

Prawn Cocktail Brioche Buns Recipe for Shrimp Sliders

This quick and easy recipe for prawn cocktail brioche buns takes the classic prawn cocktail and assembles the retro appetiser on sweet brioche buns to create deliciously simple shrimp sliders. Peeled cooked prawns coated in a classic seafood sauce are arranged on a bed of mini cos leaves and garnished with fresh fragrant dill.

These fantastic prawn cocktail brioche buns – or shrimp sliders, for our American readers – make brilliant finger food for casual gatherings or great picnic hamper stuffers. Essentially, a prawn cocktail between two pieces of bread – sweet soft fluffy French bread – these petite prawn burgers make the retro 1970s appetiser for these frugal times that are mid 2020s.

Can’t source brioche buns? Use burger buns, soft sesame rolls, hot dog buns, Turkish bread, the thick Japanese-style thick white fluffy bread used to make a tamago sando (Japanese egg sandwich), or just plain white bread – when super fresh and soft it will do the job.

Prawn Cocktail Brioche Buns Recipe for Delicious Shrimp Sliders

Chilled Cooked Prawns and Prawn Dipping Sauces

This spread of chilled cooked prawns with prawn dipping sauces comes together quickly but should be leisurely enjoyed, guests peeling their own prawns and dunking them into dipping sauces or piling them onto warm buttered bread or toast. Provide lime or lemon wedges for squeezing on the prawns and serve with glasses of Champers, chardonnay or chilled beers.

Prawns seem luxurious, but are actually very reasonably priced here in Australia right now – and are also sustainable, healthy and incredibly delicious. Bonus: a feast of chilled cooked prawns is quick and easy to prep. Fishermen’s Co-ops in Australia sell both raw and cooked prawns, so unless you’re making garlic prawns – or, say, the Venetian specialty gamberi alla busara, one of my favourite prawn dishes – then buy fresh cooked prawns.

All you have to do is prep the prawn dipping sauces and you’re set. Of course, you could just buy jars of tartar sauce and seafood sauce – which most Fishermen’s Co-ops also sell – but it takes no time, well, about 15 minutes or so, to stir up your own dipping sauces. And homemade dipping sauces make your feast a bit more special, don’t they? Along with the pop of a bottle of French bubbly or Australian sparkling wine.

Chilled Cooked Prawns and Prawn Dipping Sauces for a Deliciously Simple Feast

Shrimp Dip Recipe for a Creamy Prawn Cocktail Inspired Dip

This speedy shrimp dip recipe makes a rich and creamy dip inspired by the retro prawn cocktail appetiser. Peeled cooked prawns are sliced into chunky pieces and stirred into a classic seafood sauce thickened with crème fraiche.

Apart from how delicious it is, one of the best things about it is that it’s made it ten minutes or less if you’ve got peeled cooked prawns. All you’re going to do is slice each prawn into three or four chunky pieces and stir them into a classic seafood sauce thickened with crème fraiche.

Serve this shrimp dip or prawn dip with crinkle cut crisps, Jatz crackers, homemade croutons, or round cucumber slices for scooping it up. It’s very much a retro 1970s style dip, so if you’re feeding a crowd serve it alongside other old-fashioned homemade dips such as this French onion dip.

Speedy Shrimp Dip Recipe for a Creamy Prawn Cocktail Inspired Dip

Swedish Shrimp Toast Recipe for Toast Skagen or Skagenröra on Fried Bread

This Swedish shrimp toast recipe makes ‘toast Skagen’, a Scandinavian-style open-face sandwich topped with Skagenröra, a creamy shrimp salad of cooked prawns in a dressing of mayonnaise and crème fraîche (or sour cream) with a smidgen of mustard and loads of fresh dill and chives piled onto fried bread and topped with caviar.

If you’re like us and feasted on chilled cooked prawns over Christmas-New Year, went overboard and still have cooked shrimps in the fridge, and can’t look at another prawn cocktail, you could try this Swedish shrimp toast recipe for toast Skagen, a Swedish take on a Scandinavian shrimp sandwich found across the region.

This Swedish shrimp toast would be fab served with my baked camembert and festive dukkah‘ on New Year’s Eve. And if you’re hosting a New Year’s Eve party, having a relaxed get-together to watch the fireworks on TV, or taking a plate to a gathering, browse our best New Years Eve recipes for homemade dips and crackers, finger food, cocktails, and substantial food to soak up the booze.

Swedish Shrimp Toast Recipe for Toast Skagen or Skagenröra on Fried Bread

Vietnamese Fresh Prawn and Pork Spring Rolls Recipe for Gỏi Cuốn

Our Vietnamese fresh prawn and pork spring rolls recipe is another of our best shrimp recipes. It’s a classic gỏi cuốn recipe resulting in fresh, fragrant spring rolls that can be served as a light appetiser or lunch, part of a shared family-style meal or as finger food for a Vietnamese feast or barbecue.

Gỏi cuốn is a cold spring roll of cold cooked prawns, unseasoned pork belly, cold vermicelli noodles, and fresh aromatic herbs, wrapped in damp dry rice paper sheets. They’re light, zingy and refreshing, quick and easy to make, and incredibly healthy.

Just to clarify, as we often get asked what the difference is between ‘spring rolls’ and ‘summer rolls’. We’re calling our Vietnamese gỏi cuốn ‘spring rolls’ as that’s what they’re translated as here in Southeast Asia, when they were historically eaten for spring.

It’s what we’ve called spring rolls our entire eating lives and what you’ll see them translated to in Vietnam and throughout Southeast Asia, where they’ll be written up as ‘fresh spring rolls’ in contrast to ‘fried spring rolls’.

Vietnamese Fresh Prawn and Pork Spring Rolls Recipe for Classic Gỏi Cuốn

Vietnamese Pineapple Omelette and Prawn Summer Rolls Recipe

This Vietnamese pineapple omelette prawn summer rolls recipe makes another of my favourite shrimp recipes – the fresh shrimp spring rolls found in tropical Southern Vietnam, the Mekong Delta and Southern Cambodia.

We first came across a recipe for nem cuốn tôm trứng or prawn and omelette spring rolls in the excellent Vietnamese Street Food cookbook written by Tracey Lister and Andreas Pohl, who moved to Hanoi in 2000, where they ran Hanoi Cooking Centre until a few years ago.

In their introduction to the recipe, Tracey and Andreas say these fresh spring rolls are popular in Vietnam’s tropical south, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to discover that they’re made throughout the lush Mekong Delta, which was once part of the Cambodia’s ancient Khmer Empire and Water Chenla and Funan kingdoms, and Cambodia’s southern coast.

The couple’s recipe calls for tart unripe pineapple as a contrast to the sweet prawns and the only herb they use is fresh coriander. I recommend using sweet ripe pineapple, which is what I found in the Mekong Delta.

I also add aromatic basil and thin sticks of cucumber. Two is enough. Use everything sparingly. You don’t want your delicate rice paper rolls to burst because you’ve over-filled them.

Vietnamese Pineapple Omelette and Prawn Summer Rolls Recipe

Spanish Garlic Shrimp Recipe for Gambas al Ajillo

One of the things we used to love to do in summer in Spain was a tapas bar hop, where we’d spend an evening grazing on an array of Spanish tapas – small plates of snacks initially intended to soak up the booze, but which became the very reason to do a tapas bar crawl for many a food-lover who preferred the nibbles to the drinks.

This classic Spanish garlic shrimp recipe for gambas al ajillo makes one of the most popular Spanish tapas dishes on the menu at tapas bars in Spain and around the world, and it’s easily another one of our best shrimp recipes. While it’s a warm shrimp dish, not cold, it’s quick and easy.

Sweet plump garlic prawns are just cooked in a fragrant, gently spiced, garlicky virgin olive oil that’s just calling for you to mop it up with crusty bread. It’s also one of the easiest tapas dishes to make at home, as long as you don’t over-cook the prawns – or shrimps.

We shared this easy shrimp recipe as part of a series of our best Spanish tapas recipes, which includes recipes for Spanish meatballs called albondigas, chorizo and potato croquettes or croquetas de patata y chorizo, chorizo in red wine for chorizo al vino tinto, one of our favourite recipes with chorizo, and calamari al plancha for smoky squid cooked on a griddle.

Spanish Garlic Shrimp Recipe for Gambas al Ajillo – A Spanish Tapas Bar Favourite That’s Easy to Make at Home

Ginger Scallion Sauce Recipe for Ginger Scallion Noodles

This ginger scallion sauce recipe for ginger scallion noodles makes the much-copied Momofuku homage to the classic Southern Chinese sauce that chef David Chang and food writer Francis Lam popularised outside China well over a decade ago.

Before we knew it as the Momofuku ginger scallion sauce for ginger scallion noodles from chef David Chang’s Momofuku: A Cookbook published way back in October 2009, Chang said it was “the secret sauce” served up in Cantonese joints all over New York City. You know the kind of restaurants, as they’re endearingly the same in every Chinatown around the world.

Terence has been making these delicious ginger scallion noodles since well before their recent comeback, making them with plump fresh sweet prawns. Although he’s also been known to place a fillet of grilled salmon on top of each bowl of noodles, I love this dish with just-cooked prawns – or shrimp.

I also like to add a little fish sauce to my noodles and sprinkle on some chilli flakes, crispy fried garlic and crunchy fried shallots for more kick and texture. Terence likes to add a good squirt of hoisin sauce.

Ginger Scallion Sauce Recipe for Ginger Scallion Noodles, A Momofuku Take on a Chinese Classic

Shrimp Fried Rice With Shrimp Paste Recipe for Cambodian Bai Cha Kapi

This shrimp fried rice with shrimp paste recipe makes Cambodia’s bai char kapi, a classic fried rice distinguished by sweet plump prawns and the pungency of shrimp paste. If you love the salty, funky flavours of shrimp paste and fish sauce, you’ll love this. You don’t? Then leave out the shrimp paste and you’ve got a fantastic shrimp fried rice.

This Cambodian shrimp fried rice with shrimp paste recipe makes bai char kapi. Bai char – which you’ll also see written as bai cha, bai chaa, bai chha, bai tcha, and bay cha – is fried rice (‘bai’ is rice and ‘cha’ is to fry or stir-fry) and kapi is shrimp paste. I’ll deal with the difference between shrimps and prawns below :)

Just like our recipe for Cambodian fried rice, this shrimp fried rice with shrimp paste recipe is super easy to make if you have leftover steamed rice in the fridge – day-old steamed rice is good, but a couple of days old is even better. In fact, fried rice in China and Southeast Asia exists mainly to use up leftover rice.

Shrimp Fried Rice With Shrimp Paste Recipe for Cambodian Bai Cha Kapi

Creamy Shrimp Pasta Recipe for Prawn Spaghetti with Parsley and Sumac

This creamy shrimp pasta recipe makes a quick and easy prawn spaghetti with parsley and sumac that comes together in 15-20 minutes. This shrimp spaghetti recipe is also super versatile. Add fish or clams, canned seafood such as smoked mussels, and use smoky or sweet paprika or chilli flakes.

Use fresh or frozen shrimp or prawns. I’ve made it with both. I prefer fresh prawns but I know not everyone is a fan of peeling and deveining prawns and it will add 5-10 minutes to your prep, depending on how experienced a prawn-peeler you are.

My mum adores creamy pastas, but this is also fantastic just with extra virgin olive oil. I’ve used sumac for its earthy citrus flavours and paprika for warmth, but chilli flakes add more spice, and parsley gives the dish freshness. Serve with a simple salad, crusty bread and a bottle of white.

Creamy Shrimp Pasta Recipe for Prawn Spaghetti with Parsley and Sumac

Please do let us know in the comments below if you make our best shrimp recipes as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.