Shrimp kebabs with homemade sweet-and-sour you’ll want to eat with a spoon

As if this pineapple and shrimp kebab didn’t taste wonderful on its own, just try adding some homemade sweet-and-sour sauce to it.

I’ve always loved sweet-and-sour sauce on meats and veggies. The vinegar plus the sweet is so good together that it’s hard to stop eating. And I had no idea it was so easy to make sweet-and-sour sauce. All you have to do is warm up the ingredients in a saucepan and stir until it thickens. And when you take that first taste test, well, let’s just say you might want to eat the rest of the sauce with a spoon.

I guess you could call these kebabs a one-skewer meal, because they have shrimp, veggies and pineapple all in one. And when served over rice, you have a colorful meal that tastes as pretty as it looks.

And as a bonus, feel free to drench your shrimp in sweet-and-sour sauce.

Grilled sweet-and-sour shrimp with pineapple kebabs recipe

Classic grilled shrimp kebabs with fresh pineapple, onion and veggies are served over rice and topped with a super-simple sweet-and-sour sauce.

Serves 2

Prep time: 15 minutes | Inactive time: 20 minutes | Cook time: 20 minutes | Total time: 55 minutes

Ingredients:

For the sweet-and-sour sauce

For the kebabs

• 8 large shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails on
• 8 chunks fresh pineapple, skin and core removed (about 1-inch squares)
• 1/4 red onion, peeled and cut into large pieces (about 1-inch squares)
• 4 pieces zucchini
• 4 pieces red bell pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onion (including the green part)

Directions:

For the sweet-and-sour sauce

1. To a small bowl, add the cornstarch and water. Stir until it turns to liquid, and set it aside.
2. Heat a medium-size pan on low to medium heat, and add the soy sauce, pineapple juice, ketchup, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, sesame oil and ginger. Stir together.
3. Continuously stir while the mixture heats up.
4. When the sauce starts to bubble, stir the cornstarch mixture again, and add it to the sauce.
5. Stir continuously. Let cook until the sauce starts to thicken (about 8 to 10 minutes), then remove the pan from the heat.
6. Into a small bowl, pour 1/4 of the sauce. This will only be used for basting the raw shrimp.
7. Into a separate bowl, pour the remaining sauce. This will be used as a dipping sauce or to top the shrimp after it’s cooked.

For the kebabs

1. Soak 4 wooden skewers for 20 minutes. Heat the grill to 350 degrees F.
2. Alternately thread the pineapple, onion, shrimp, zucchini and bell pepper on the skewers.
3. From only the small bowl that is just for the raw shrimp, brush all the sweet-and-sour sauce onto each side of the kebabs.
4. Place the kebabs on the grill, and cook for about 4 to 5 minutes on each side or until the shrimp turns pink and is cooked through.
5. Serve the kebabs over rice.
6. Drizzle the remaining sweet-and-sour sauce (only from the bowl that was set aside for the cooked shrimp) on top of the kebabs, or use it as a dipping sauce.
7. Top the kebabs with green onion.

More shrimp recipes

Grilled hoisin shrimp kebabs
Grilled shrimp kebabs with spicy fruit salsa
Lemongrass shrimp skewers