This prawn salad with pickled cucumber is refreshing, very easy and very quick to prepare. The prawns are lightly fried and tossed into a salad of cucumber, spinach, chilli and coriander leaves. This recipe serves 4 people and takes 30 mins to make. This salad would be a filling lunch or light dinner in the summer months. It’s really easy to make too! The flavoursome dressing is made with garlic, chillies and fish sauce packing it full of punch. This salad is best made and served from fresh.
Ingredients
- 1 cucumber
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 4 handfuls of baby spinach leaves
- 3 tsp sesame oil
- 280g pack raw tiger prawns
- For the dressing:
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- ½ small red chilli or ½-1 large red chilli, deseeded and finely diced
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- ½ tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbs fish sauce
- 4 tbs lime juice (juice from 2 limes)
- 1 tbs freshly chopped mint leaves
- 2 tbs freshly chopped coriander leaves, plus extra for garnish
Method
Peel the cucumber and cut it into fine slices, on the diagonal. Put slices in a colander (over a bowl) and sprinkle with sea salt, mixing it in gently. Leave for 1 hr, if time, to extract the water.
To make the dressing: Whisk all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Rinse the cucumber quickly under cold running water and pat dry in a clean tea towel.
Add the cucumber to the dressing and stir it in gently. Taste, and season if necessary. Put spinach leaves in 4 bowls, then spoon the pickled cucumber over.
Heat a pan, add 1 tsp of the sesame oil and the prawns; cook them for a few mins until they turn pink, tinged with brown. Spoon on top of the salad, add any leftover dressing and sprinkle with the rest of the oil. Garnish with coriander and serve straight away.
Top tip for making Prawn salad with pickled cucumber
Add some rice noodles, if you like, to make this a more substantial meal.
