Seasoned with soy sauce and flavorful dashi broth, this Japanese-style Pasta with Shrimp and Asparagus is incredibly delicious and ready in less than 30 minutes! It’s also gluten-free!
Spring is in the air! Say goodbye to hot pot and stews, and let’s welcome bright and light dishes with spring vegetables!
Today I’m going to share a super quick and easy Japanese Pasta with Shrimp and Asparagus (海老とアスパラガス簡単和風パスタ).
What’s Japanese Pasta?
You might have heard of the word Wafu Pasta (和風パスタ) while you were visiting Japan. Wafu Pasta refers to Japanese-style Pasta.
Wafu (和風) means Japanese-style and we often use this word to describe something that’s Japanese-style. In cooking, it can be the use of Japanese flavor profiles and ingredients. You might have heard of Wafu Dressing (Japanese-style salad dressing) or Wafu Hambagu (Japanese style hamburger steak).
3 Tips to Make This Recipe
1. Pick good asparagus.
Asparagus is very sweet and delicious when it’s in season! You should look for firm and crisp stalks with tightly closed budding tips. There are different sizes of asparagus, and for this recipe, I think it’s best to pick thin to medium-width stalks so that they don’t require cooking for a long time.
2. Cook stalks and spears separately.
The texture of the food is important, especially when you want to fully enjoy seasonal fresh vegetables. You don’t want to get mushy wilted asparagus!
In cooking, little extra steps help and improve the final dish. Please remember to cook stalks first because they take a longer time to cook than spears.
3. Cook pasta till al dente in the frying pan.
Don’t cook your pasta until al dente when you are boiling pasta in the pot, as you will need to toss the pasta with ingredients and seasonings in the frying pan. You don’t want to end up with overcooked pasta. Purposely undercook the pasta for this dish.
Make this Japanese Pasta Gluten-Free
Gluten-Free Soy Sauce
Soy sauce is traditionally brewed from water, wheat, soybeans, and salt. If you are gluten intolerant, you won’t be able to use soy sauce in cooking unless it’s tamari soy sauce (100% wheat-free ones) or gluten-free soy sauce.
Kikkoman offers 3 varieties of gluten-free soy sauce. For this recipe, I used the regular gluten-free soy sauce (blue label) which tastes just like regular soy sauce.
Gluten-Free Pasta
I’ve tried several brands of gluten-free pasta and by far Garofalo’s Gluten-Free Spaghetti and Linguine are the BEST pasta that I’ve tasted.
The texture and flavors are just like regular pasta. Mr. JOC and the kids didn’t notice that this was a gluten-free dish until I mentioned it. So if you have a family member or friend who is allergic to gluten, you can all still enjoy the same meal with this pasta!
Use Other Spring Vegetables
There are so many wonderful spring vegetables that you can incorporate into this dish in case you don’t like asparagus. Here are my choices of spring vegetables that would go well with this dish.
- Artichokes
- Belgian endive
- Butter lettuce
- Cabbage (in Japan, we have “spring cabbage” 春キャベツ)
- Collard greens
- Fava beans
- Fennel
- Green beans
- Mustard greens
- Peas
- Snow peas
- spinach
- Swiss chard
- Watercress
The Amount of Chili Peppers
Mr. JOC and I love adding 1-2 dried red chili peppers (without seeds) in this pasta. I’d chop into smaller pieces and cook with olive oil and garlic to infuse the flavor. However, my children think it’s a bit too spicy, even with one red chili pepper.
If you have children, another option is to sprinkle crushed chili peppers over pasta at the table. As the chili peppers are not infused into the oil, you would need more chili flakes to enjoy the kick, but it works.
If you love spicy food, I highly recommend cooking with chili peppers. I hope you enjoy this recipe with your family and friends!
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Japanese Pasta with Shrimp and Asparagus
Video
Ingredients
- ¼ red onion (2.5 oz, 70 g)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 6 oz asparagus spears
- 10 pieces shrimp (9 oz, 260 g; peeled and deveined)
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1½–2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1–2 dried red chili pepper (seeds removed; optional)
- ¼–⅓ cup dashi (Japanese soup stock)
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce (use GF soy sauce for gluten-free)
- crushed red pepper (red pepper flakes) (optional)
- 8 oz gluten-free pasta (4 oz/113 g per person; I used my favorite GF pasta brand‘s linguini)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Bring a big pot of water to boil.
- Meanwhile, cut ¼ red onion and 2 cloves garlic into thin slices.
- Cut 6 oz asparagus spears diagonally and separate the spears and stalks, as we will sauté the stalks first because they take longer to cook.
- Sprinkle Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper on 10 pieces shrimp. If your shrimp is not peeled or deveined, you can check my tutorial for instructions.
- Once the pasta water is boiling, for 4QT (16 cups or 3.8L) add 2 Tbsp salt. Then, add 8 oz gluten-free pasta. As we will cook the pasta a little longer after draining, cook it 1 minute less than the directions on the package.
- Heat 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When it’s hot, add the shrimp and cook until the bottom side is nicely browned, about 2–3 minutes. Don’t touch the shrimp until it releases itself from the skillet. Once it has a nice char on one side, you can easily flip.
- When one side of the shrimp is nicely browned, flip and cook the other side for 2–3 minutes. Once the shrimp are nicely golden brown, transfer to a plate and set aside.
- Lower the heat to medium low, add 1½–2 Tbsp unsalted butter and swirl around.
- Add the red onion and garlic slices and sauté for 1 minute. If you like spicy pasta, add 1–2 dried red chili pepper now. Increase the heat to medium and add the stalks of asparagus. Sauté for about 3 minutes, until asparagus stalks become tender.
- Then, add the spears of asparagus and cook for another 1–2 minutes, until the asparagus are tender but still nice and crisp.
- Add the shrimp back into the skillet, add ¼–⅓ cup dashi (Japanese soup stock), and increase the heat to medium high.
- Add 1 Tbsp soy sauce (gluten free) and adjust based on your preference.
- Add the cooked pasta and toss to combine with the ingredients. If you‘d like, sprinkle freshly ground black pepper. Serve immediately. Optionally, you can garnish with crushed red pepper (red pepper flakes).
Looks delectable! Will definitely make this for dinner tomorrow! I haven’t yet tried a recipe from JOC that wasn’t delicious!
Hi Faith! Hope you enjoy the recipe! 🙂 Thank you for your kind words. xo
Also tried your teriyaki chicken wings yesterday- so gooey and tasty! I unfortunately let it get a bit burnt… next time I need to keep a closer watch on it! But will definitely make it for friends coming over soon!
Sorry about the little burn on the chicken. Yes, when you put it in the oven, keep an eye on it. 🙂 Each oven is different and sometimes it’s closer to the heat source. 🙂
Hi Faith! I’m so happy to hear you enjoy my recipes and thank you for your kind words!
Made this tonight with spaghetti noodles and scallops! Turned out amazing and I know I crushed it when my bfs eyes rolled back. Only took 30 minutes to prepare too! I’m definitely remembering this one for quick dinner nights when I get home late! Thanks so much.
Hi Bnz! Thank you so much for trying this recipe with scallops! YUM!!! I’m happy you and your BF enjoyed this recipe and thank you for writing the kind feedback. xo
That’s a yummy and quick meal.
Thank you, Elaine! xo
[…] Easy Wafu Pasta with Shrimp and Asparagus […]
Absolute FAVORITE!!! The Japanese Dashi really brought out the flavor and made this outstanding. Fresh, spicy with the chili flakes and with a deep depth from the asparagus and shrimp. Such a wonderful recipe! ご馳走様!
Hi Don! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it as much as we did! Thanks for your kind feedback. 🙂 xo
[…] Easy Wafu Pasta with Shrimp and Asparagus […]
[…] 4. Easy Wafu Pasta with Shrimp and Asparagus […]
[…] if you like Japanese-style Wafu Pasta, we recommend Garofalo’s Gluten-Free […]
Hi Nami, what skillet and size did you use for this dish? Thanks!
Hi Wendy! This is what I have: https://amzn.to/2mobi4e. 🙂
Great recipe. We ate it last night. I did substitute Somen noodles for Pasta. Like those & Udon noodles a lot. I would ask you to use more metric weight measurements than volume.
Hi Tom! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! Ohh somen! Nice swap! My son loves somen very much, he would definitely like this recipe with somen. 🙂
P.S. I include a metric system in parenthesis (except for the recipes from 5-7 years ago, which I haven’t updated).
Hi there what to do with the dashi?
Hi M! Do you mean what to do with the leftover? You can keep it for a week in the fridge. A lot of Japanese recipes require dashi in the recipe so you can use it. When I don’t have other recipes to use, I always use up for miso soup since I always serve miso soup to accompany Japanese food and steamed rice. 🙂
Hi Nami, What do you recommend as substitute for shrimp given the taste combination of asparagus and seasoning? Should i go vegetarian completely since meat may make the dish too heavy? Additionally, how would you cut Belgian Endive and for how long to cook it in the heat? Thank you so much in advance for advice.
Hi Nana! If there is no dietary restriction, I think bacon, chicken, and mushrooms would work perfectly. If you don’t want it to be “heavy” then don’t add too much, just enough to boost the flavor. You don’t want just plain carbs. 🙂
Belgian endive – assuming you’re talking about for a different dish?? Now, don’t separate them. Depending on its size, cut in half or quarter (wedges). So the core will hold each piece. They can be enjoyed raw, so just cook for 2-3 mins. I love crisp texture, but depending on the dish you’re creating, maybe more toward 3 mins so it’s not as crisp and balance out with other food texture. Hope that helps a little….
Hi Nami – This recipe was delicious! So simple yet so tasty. I love Wafu recipes – they remind me so much of the cafes in Japan. Thank you for posting this awesome recipe – my family and I really enjoyed it.
Hi Anita! I’m so happy to hear you and your family enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂
Simple, versatile and healthy recipe, Nami! I had a salmon fillet that I had already planned to cook for dinner and decided to substitute it for the shrimp and the pasta turned out great. Looking forward to trying it next with shrimp. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Janice! Thank you so much! So glad you tried it with salmon! Sounds really good! I love the salmon in my pasta too. Thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂
Hey Nami, greetings from germany your recipe is great, love the combination of asparagus and prawn. I have a littel question, what is the brand of your flatware shown in the picture?
Hi Kevin! It’s Cutipol (http://www.cutipol.pt/index.php). I love their simple yet beautiful design. 🙂