Tender shrimp are tossed with olive oil and lemon juice, skewered, and then grilled to juicy perfection. Serve alongside a flavorful arugula pesto aioli for dipping. This easy dish can be served as an appetizer or as a main dish over a green salad or alongside a bowl of soup.

I’ve been all about quick and easy meals lately. It seems the days just keep going by faster and faster. Plus, when you’ve got a food blog you spend a lot of time on the photos, recipes, content, etc. Needless to say, the quicker I can get the actual cooking part done, the better!

Shrimp are one of my favorite things to make when I need a quick meal. They take minutes to cook and if you’re using frozen they thaw super fast too. Shrimp are also really versatile – you can serve them as an appetizer, main dish, on a salad, tossed in pasta, and they pair well with so many different flavors.

I’ve been really obsessing over arugula pesto lately, as you probably know from the last post. It just so happens that it goes really well with grilled shrimp!

I decided to mix the pesto into a healthy homemade mayonnaise to make an aioli dipping sauce. This stuff is so good that I could eat it by the spoonful. I did, actually. The mayonnaise recipe I use is from my friend, Natalie – it’s the easiest and tastiest mayo ever! Seriously, you only need 3 ingredients, a mason jar, and an immersion blender. It takes seconds to make!

You can easily use store-bought mayo if you don’t want to make your own, but the homemade is just too good (and easy) to pass up! As for the pesto, you can use basil pesto if you’ve got that hanging around. I highly recommend the arugula pesto as I think it adds a bit more zing to aioli and pairs perfectly with the shrimp.

To make arugula pesto, follow my recipe for perfect pesto and swap out the basil for arugula.

These shrimp skewers can be served as an appetizer for movie night or a dinner party. You can also enjoy them with a side of veggies, on top of a salad or alongside soup. I had a few of these skewers with my pesto vegetable soup and it was delicious.

Even my self-proclaimed shrimp hater of a fiancé enjoyed these. When he saw what we were having he said “I usually only like to eat about 3 shrimp before I’ve had enough”. Well, he ate way more than 3! So, if you’re looking for a quick meal or appetizer I urge you to make this recipe!

Oh, and I should mention the aioli can be used for a lot of different things – in chicken salad, thin it out with a little water and use it as a salad dressing, with grilled salmon or chicken… get creative!