This may be my new favorite rice dish.  Actually I think I’m evenly divided between this and pomegranate saffron rice.  The great thing about this recipe is that it’s perfect for using up leftover rice.  Sometimes when I make rice for something I end up with extra but not quite enough for fried rice the next day.  I wanted to come up with a way to keep that rice from going to waste.  That’s how this simple dish of rice, spinach, shrimp and mushrooms was created.

Some people see shrimp a luxury item.  I once had a commenter blast me because I dared to call my shrimp curry recipe affordable.  She said anyone who was truly on a tight budget would know that shrimp is ridiculously expensive.  This was back when I allowed anonymous comments, so I couldn’t reply to explain to her that while shrimp is a more expensive protein, it’s not impossible to afford when you stretch it out.

I buy shrimp in bulk, typically at Sam’s Club.  I get a bag of 150-180 medium raw shrimp (shelled) for around $10.  While that may seem like a lot of money, it’s also a LOT of shrimp!  It also only comes out to about 6 cents a shrimp!  Putting 6-8 shrimp person in a dish is really easy on your food budget.  To thaw the shrimp I want to use, I put them in a bowl in the fridge overnight, or microwave on defrost for 30 seconds to one minute.  I save the juices that result from the thawing to add flavor to whatever I’m putting the shrimp in.

I do want to qualify that I use these shrimp in dishes with other strong flavors, for instance this dish has aged  parmesan, sweet white wine and pungent garlic.  It’s not the highest quality shrimp, so if I am doing shrimp cocktail or grilled shrimp, something where the shrimp flavor is most prominent, I buy higher quality raw shrimp with the shell on.

For the mushrooms in this dish you could use any mushroom of your choice.  I went with white button mushrooms because I had some in the fridge, I bet cremini or chanterelles would fantastic.

One of my favorite things about this recipe is that it’s similar to risotto, but ready in about ten minutes.  The rice isn’t quite as creamy as risotto, but it’s a close second and much easier to whip up when I’m practically asleep on my feet.

By the way, you may have noticed that my recipe format has changed.  That’s because Google has a new recipe search feature that needs recipes formatted a certain way.  Right now only big corporate recipe sites show up in the search, not food blogs.  I’ve seen a dramatic drop in my Google traffic because of this, so Eric and I are going to be reformatting my recipes to make them start showing up as well.

Other changes are in the works as well, but this is the first really noticeable one.  Thanks so much for your loyalty and support!

Approximate cost/serving: This dish came out to about $3.20 for two of us.  Really the parmesan and white wine were more expensive than the shrimp.  So it came it just $1.60 per serving.

Vegetarian/Gluten Free: If you eat seafood this recipe is fine and is gluten free with no changes necessary.