Zaatar Crusted Shrimp with Lemon Tahini Drizzle

Zaatar Crusted Shrimp with Lemon Tahini Drizzle was a major aha moment for me! Duh, why wouldn’t shrimp, zaatar, and lemon tahini taste amazing together?

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You have no idea the high that I get after my husband gives me the thumbs up after trying something that I created in the kitchen!  This was one of those highs.

So what had happened was, I met up with a fellow mom foodie that thinks about food just as much if not more than I do, to talk about work, seriously.  We spent about 2 hours talking about the kids and food, just kidding it was pretty much all food and sweet pillar, work, you know.  Zaatar came up in the conversation.  That was that.

I came home, saw the shrimp I got for a lemon shrimp pasta dish I was planning on making.  Lightbulb.  Zaatar from my subconscious jumped out, the shrimp was right in front of my face, boom bam, next thing I know I’m creating Zaatar crusted shrimp with lemon tahini drizzle.

Look at this crispy, herby, tangy goodness!

I thought it tasted great and I love that it was so different.  My mom and grandmother, both the best chefs I’ve ever known literally make so much food on a daily basis for the family, the kids and nonstop guests it’s as if they were running catering businesses.  My mom makes and experiments with food all the time and cooks every cuisine under the sun, but when it comes to Arabic food she is NOT comfortable experimenting.

If I ever consulted with her about making zaatar crusted shrimp she would have freaked out, gave me a look of confusion, and would’ve just said in Arabic “we just don’t do that.  we don’t eat zaatar and shrimp.  It’s just not done.”  There is one way to eat zaatar and its taking pita bread, dipping it in a bowl of olive oil then a bowl of zaatar and then sipping tea.  I’ll update this post and tell you her reaction once I show her the pictures and tell her what I did.  Insert emoticon of monkey covering his face here.  haha.

And that lemon tahini….Mmmmm!

So this is actually pretty easy to make.  The lemon tahini sauce is used for multiple dishes so it’s definitely a recipe to hold on to and know how to access later.  Ayla eats this sauce with just pita bread, she loves it so much.  I made the shrimp the same way I would if I was making buffalo shrimp or coconut crusted shrimp and then I just drizzled the zaatar marinade at the end.  The challenge is making the zaatar wet enough to stick on to the shrimp.