This tasty recipe, a version of one I found in Louisiana Cookin’, is an easy way to bring the flavors of a traditional shrimp boil to your dinner table any night of the week. The trick is adding ingredients to be baked at the right time, so nothing is undercooked or overcooked at the end.
And because this isn’t a boil, you can add other ingredients, like sweet potato chunks, mushrooms, green beans, or cherry tomatoes. Use your imagination to create your own flavor profile. Here’s how I put this one together:
Line a large sheet pan with foil, for easy clean-up later. Preheat your oven to 425F. Take a pound of potatoes–I used a small variety bag of baby spuds–cut them to size if needed and boil in salted water for about 10 minutes, just until barely fork tender.
While the potatoes are boiling, cut a peeled sweet potato into small cubes. Cut a sweet onion into quarter slices and break apart. When potatoes are done and drained, put these ingredients together in a bowl. Drizzle with a little olive oil and toss. Add a generous sprinkle of your favorite cajun seasoning and toss to coat.
Pour out the ingredients on your baking sheet and add 2 heads of garlic with their tops trimmed off, cut side down, and 2 lemons cut in half, cut side up. Bake for about 15 minutes, until you see potatoes are getting a touch of brown on them.
Now toss the following ingredients with olive oil and seasoning like you did before, and add to your sheet pan: a pound of smoked sausage cut into one inch pieces, 2 or 3 corn cobs cut into 2 inch pieces, half a pound of halved mushrooms, and a good handful of fresh green beans. Cook an additional 15 to 20 minutes more.
For the final addition, put one pound of raw large peeled shrimp (tails on) and a large handful of cherry tomatoes in a bowl, toss with olive oil and seasoning, then add to your sheet pan. Bake about 10 minutes more, or until your shrimp have turned pink and are opaque. Don’t overbake your shrimp. 🙂
Take the now-roasted garlic and roasted lemons and squeeze them into a stick of melted unsalted butter, adding cajun seasoning to taste, and serve on the side. Now just put the sheet pan of yumminess in the middle of the table and have your family/guests dig in. Enjoy!
