A homemade dressing of garlic, chilli, sesame oil, and lime juice infuses this prawn salad with plenty of flavour.
The prawns are lightly fried and tossed into a salad of pickled cucumber, spinach, and fresh coriander leaves. This dish is a light option for lunch at just 117 calories per portion. This recipe uses tiger prawns but any type of prawn would work just as well.
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 tips for making prawn salad with pickled cucumber
If you want to bulk this prawn salad up you could serve it with noodles, rice, or a slice of crusty bread. Remember this will alter the calories though so keep this in mind if this meal is part of your 5:2 diet meal plan for example.
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