The Best Prawn Salad

A community recipe by Bevis

Not tested or verified by Nigella.com

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Introduction

Fresh, summery prawn salad. Secretly an updated version of prawn cocktail, but a million times better than that description makes it sound. While it's most obviously a starter it also works just as well (if not better) as a main course served with good, crusty white bread.

Ingredients

Serves: 0

Metric Cups

1 packet prawns (largeish pack, cooked and peeled - size dependent on how many you're making it for and how hungry you are, you want a fair amount of prawns though and while frozen ones work fine fresh ones are bette
1 tub plain yoghurt (large tub, live - any kind but Greek yoghurt works well)
1 red pepper
5 large tomatoes (or a couple of handfuls of baby tomatoes - baby ones are my preference here if you can find really good, tasty ones)
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch spring onions (purple ones like especially nice)
1 bunch fresh mint (a fat bunch)
lemon juice
tabasco
black pepper
lettuce (something bland and crispy like iceberg)

1 packet shrimp (largeish pack, cooked and peeled - size dependent on how many you're making it for and how hungry you are, you want a fair amount of prawns though and while frozen ones work fine fresh ones are bette
1 tub plain yogurt (large tub, live - any kind but Greek yoghurt works well)
1 red bell pepper
5 large tomatoes (or a couple of handfuls of baby tomatoes - baby ones are my preference here if you can find really good, tasty ones)
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch scallions (purple ones like especially nice)
1 bunch fresh mint (a fat bunch)
lemon juice
tabasco
black pepper
lettuce (something bland and crispy like iceberg)

Method

The Best Prawn Salad is a community recipe submitted by Bevis and has not been tested by Nigella.com so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe.

Put the yoghurt into a large bowl. If you're using Greek yoghurt give it a good stir so that it's all smooth (the same goes for any other type of yoghurt as well, but you're less likely to need to get rid of any lumps). Add a good grind of black pepper (no need for salt), a good dash of Tabasco sauce (to taste) and lemon juice (probably about half a lemon, maybe more) and the finely chopped or crushed garlic and give everything a good mix.

Chop the mint roughly and add that to the mixture.

Drain the prawns (rinse them if they're especially salty) and add them to the mix and stir again.

Chop the pepper, spring onions and tomatoes into bite sized pieces (not small, you want a good bit of texture so if using baby tomatoes just cut them in half to let some of the juice out) and add them to everything else, giving it all one final stir to get everything mixed together.

Ideally then leave it in the fridge for at least a couple of hours, but overnight is even better.

Taste the yoghurt 'sauce' to check if you need more lemon or Tabasco. You want a bit of kick from the Tabasco without it overwhelming the rest of the ingredients and you want to taste the lemon without it being too overpowering again.

When you're ready to serve it put some fresh lettuce into a bowl (torn into pieces rather than chopped or whole leaves) and pile the prawny yoghurt salad on top. Then scoff.

Chop the mint roughly and add that to the mixture.

Drain the shrimp (rinse them if they're especially salty) and add them to the mix and stir again.

Chop the pepper, scallions and tomatoes into bite sized pieces (not small, you want a good bit of texture so if using baby tomatoes just cut them in half to let some of the juice out) and add them to everything else, giving it all one final stir to get everything mixed together.

Ideally then leave it in the fridge for at least a couple of hours, but overnight is even better.

When you're ready to serve it put some fresh lettuce into a bowl (torn into pieces rather than chopped or whole leaves) and pile the prawny yoghurt salad on top. Then scoff.

Additional Information

The pure white of the sauce sets of the pale pinkness of the prawns, the vivid red of the pepper and tomatoes and the green of the mint and spring onions (or the purple of the spring onions) fantastically which only makes it look more like a flower bed made for eating. It's especially good with a good glass of white wine sat outside on a warm summer's evening as a light lunch, but works equally well as a relatively light starter. It's got a lot of flavours to it but they work very well together and none of them should overpower the others. It also has the advantage of being very quick to make (bar the time taken for it to sit in the fridge). I wouldn't keep it any longer than a day or so though simply because gone off prawns or yoghurt aren't good