prawn salad with an asian twist

Salads are one of my favourite things to eat... I have always loved them and always will :p This prawn salad is a bit of an invention of my own and inspired by Asian dishes, using ginger and chillies. It's also quite filling and can be eaten as a main dish especially on a lovely warm evening or can be prepared as part of a buffet. Keep in mind that it does take a while to make, as there are a lot of ingredients to cut up! Also as this is a completely made up dish I really have no set amounts for the ingredients... just do it by eye and put as much or as little as you like from each ingredient.

Ingredients:

For the prawns and mushrooms:

Pack of prawns (precooked and deshelled)

Pack of mushrooms of your choice

Ginger (finely chopped)

Garlic (finely chopped)

Chillies (finely chopped)

Splash of fish sauce

Splash of soya sauce

For the salad:

Mixed salad leaves of your choice (can include chicory, watercress, lettuce etc….)

Tomatoes

Cucumber

Avocado

Red onion

Bunch of chopped coriander leaves to top up

For the salad dressing:

Freshly squeezed lemon juice 

A pinch of sugar (to compliment the acidity of the lemon)

Olive oil (3 to 5 times the amount of lemon juice)

Chilli flakes (optional, depending on how spicy you want it!)

Preparation:

1.     Heat a bit of oil in a wok and lightly fry the ginger, garlic and chilli over a low heat so as not to burn the ingredients. Add the mushrooms, fish sauce and soya sauce and stir fry until tender. Add prawns and heat through.  Leave to cool slightly before adding to the salad.

2.     Chop and mix all the other salad ingredients in a salad bowl.

3.     Prepare the dressing in a small bowl by mixing all the ingredients and giving them a good stir so that the sugar dissolves as much as possible.

4.     Add the cooled down prawns and mushrooms in the salad making sure that most of the juice from the wok doesn’t “spill” into the salad as the taste from the ginger and the rest of the mixture will be too strong. Add the coriander, salad dressing and a bit of salt if needed. Mix well and serve.