Prawn, Mange Tout & Cashew Nut Salad on Rice Noodles with Asian style dressing

Asian ingredients and Asian flavours are really big in my house, and never seem to lose the appeal. I may not have grown up with all these particular flavours or combinations, but by the age of seventeen I began the journey into Thai and South East Asian cuisine, learning from cook books, Internet searches and watching chefs like Jamie Oliver and Gary Rhodes on the tellie. The cusine provides for many a quick and healthy recipe too. I have never looked back.

By combining prawns (sweet and delicate), mange tout (or bok choi /baby spinach leaves if they’re in season) (crisp and bursting with a pop of colour), along with roasted cashew nuts (crunch and creaminess), you’ve got the perfect starting point for creating an Asian dish with complex but harmonious elements. Piled onto thin rice or glass noodles and jazzed up with a zingy dressing, this makes for a slurp-worth meal. So much more than just a salad.

If you’re not ready to let go of summer just yet, this is the salad for you- hearty (but healthy) and with the heat of chilli to fend off the cold, but full of fresh flavours too.

Substitute the prawns for chili and garlic flash fried calamari, poached chicken or steamed firm flesh white fish.

Ingredients

Serves 4

500g rice or glass noodles, cooked according to the packet instructions

300g prawns, deveined, shelled and cooked

1 cup mange tout (or baby spinach)

30g cashew nuts, roasted until golden

1/3 medium red onion, finely sliced and soaked in 3 T rice wine vinegar, for 5 minutes (the vinegar removes the harsh rawness of the onion and ‘pickles’ it)

5 salad onions or 2 spring onions, snipped

For the dressing

20ml soya suace

25ml rice wine vinegar (or fresh lime juice if you prefer)

1/3 medium chilli, chopped finely

1T honey

1T sesame oil

Method

Arrange noodles in a serving bowl.

Top with cooked prawns (mine were bought pre-cooked and sprinkled with black pepper. Alas, I realised this too late. And so, in this dish we have a bit of East- West clash! I implore you to forgive this kitchen stumble and do use plain variety).

Cover the mange tout with boiling water in a bowl. Leave for 3-4 minutes. Refresh under cold water. Add back to the bowl with a few ice cubes.

Add the mange tout, cashew nuts, pickled red onions and spring onions, on top of the noodles.

Whisk the dressing together to emulsify.

Drizzle the dressing over and serve.