6 recipes using shrimp — Fish curry, kottu roti, hoppers — fiery coconut-rich cooking from the Pearl of the Indian Ocean.
These 6 sri lankan shrimp recipes are ready in about 84 minutes on average, with 90–780 kcal per serving, and 67% are rated easy enough for a weeknight. Every recipe includes exact ingredient quantities, step-by-step instructions and full nutrition per serving.
Sri Lankan cuisine — Fish curry, kottu roti, hoppers — fiery coconut-rich cooking from the Pearl of the Indian Ocean — brings its own distinctive techniques and seasonings to every ingredient it touches. When Sri Lankan cooks work with shrimp, they reach for its own regional aromatics, fats and signature spice blends, and the techniques that come up most across these recipes are caramelising, baking, frying and boiling.
Sweet, quick-cooking shellfish that go from raw to ready in two or three minutes — perfect for fast, high-heat dishes. In this collection it's most often cooked with rich meat stock, thick coconut milk, lime juice, curry leaves, tamarind paste and fine sea salt. The dishes here span sri lankan classics ready in as little as 15 minutes to slower, more involved cooking that rewards a relaxed afternoon.
Reader favourite: Lamprais (Dutch Burgher Sri Lankan Rice Parcels) is the highest-rated dish in this collection at 4.9★ from 410 ratings.
Sri Lanka's most theatrical dish: fragrant rice baked inside a sealed banana leaf parcel with four curries, blachan and seeni sambol — a 17th-century Dutch-colonial recipe still made for special occasions today.
Sri Lanka's auspicious coconut milk rice — made for every celebration, from New Year to weddings.
Sweet, spicy Sri Lankan caramelized onion relish with Maldive fish — the essential condiment for every rice and curry table.
Rice, three-meat curry, frikkadel meatballs and seeni sambol wrapped in banana leaves and baked — Sri Lanka's most labor-intensive heritage dish.
Freshly grated coconut pounded with chili, onion, lime and dried fish flakes into a vibrant, spicy relish, essential at every Sri Lankan meal.
Onions slow-cooked with tamarind, chili and Maldive fish into a sweet, tangy, deeply savory relish, a beloved condiment across Sri Lanka.
Look for firm, translucent flesh with a clean sea smell — never ammonia. Shell-on shrimp keep more flavour; larger counts (fewer per kilo) mean bigger shrimp.
Peel and devein, leaving the tail on for presentation if you like. A quick brine firms the texture; pat dry before searing so they brown rather than steam.
Cook just until they curl into a loose C and turn opaque pink — a tight O means they're overdone and rubbery.
Very lean and high in protein, with selenium, vitamin B12 and iodine for few calories.
Most of these 6 Sri Lankan shrimp recipes are ready in around 84 minutes from start to finish. The quickest, Sri Lankan Pol Sambol (Fresh Coconut Chili Relish), takes about 15 minutes, while the slower-cooked dishes run up to 180 minutes.
Across this collection they range from about 90 to 780 kcal per serving, averaging 343 kcal — Sri Lankan Seeni Sambol (Caramelized Onion Relish) is the lightest option at 90 kcal.
Sri Lankan Kiribath (Milk Rice) is a great place to start — it's rated easy and comes together in about 40 minutes. 67% of the recipes here are beginner-friendly.
In these recipes, shrimp is most often paired with rich meat stock, thick coconut milk, lime juice, curry leaves, tamarind paste and fine sea salt. Sri Lankan kitchens also lean on its own regional aromatics, fats and signature spice blends.
Cook just until they curl into a loose C and turn opaque pink — a tight O means they're overdone and rubbery.
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