Vietnamese prawn curry recipe

This Vietnamese prawn curry has just two steps in the method and takes 10 minutes to cook. 

Dinner doesn’t get much healthier, quicker or tastier than this zingy Vietnamese-inspired curry. The recipe serves two but it’s easy to scale up if you’re cooking for more. Each portion includes one of your 5-a-day but a side of steamed greens can easily boost this. 

Ingredients

• Frylight sunflower oil spray
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 2 lemongrass sticks, trimmed and chopped
• 1-2 green chillies, deseeded and sliced
• 1-2tbsp curry powder
• 200ml semi-skimmed milk
• 1tsp sugar
• 1tbsp fish sauce
• 1tsp chicken bullion powder
• 200g raw prawns
• 150g pak choi

Method

1. Spray a little oil into a pan and gently cook the onion, lemongrass, chilli and curry powder for about 5 minutes, until softened and fragrant.
2. Add the milk, sugar, fish sauce, stock powder and prawns, then bring to a simmer. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the prawns are just turning pink, then add the pak choi for 1-2 minutes. Serve straight away with extra chillies.

Top tips for making Vietnamese prawn curry

If you’re pescatarian, swap the chicken bullion powder for vegetable powder instead. You could also crumble in ¼ to ½ a fish stock cube if you prefer. 

Jessica Ransom

“Using semi-skimmed milk helps to keep the calories down in this recipe but if you’re not worried about increasing them, swap to coconut milk for a delicious creamy flavour.” 

If you want perfectly even slices of onion, food writer Jessica Ransom recommends using a mandoline. It helps everything cook evenly and is quick and easy to use.

OXO Good Grips Handheld Mandoline Slicer - View at Amazon

Using a mandoline slicer is the easiest way to achieve thin, uniform slices. This mandoline has three thickness levels and a useful  guard to keep your fingers safe! 

Try our Thai prawn curry and noodles if you fancy some more Southeast Asian cuisine. You might also like our Chinese prawn curry or Joe Wicks Goan fish curry. For something more indulgent, Wagamama's katsu curry recipe is a great choice.