People always always ask me: “What can I do for a sauce to stop my food being tasteless?” For me, the combination of shallots, mushrooms and prawns is a match made in heaven. They produce unbelievably tasty flavours together, especially stir fried in coconut oil. The sweetness of the shallots and nutty flavour of the mushrooms really goes so well with the prawns. The quinoa just offers a much more healthy alternative than pasta to bulk out the dish. If you haven’t come across this before, it’s a high-protein grain that cooks just like rice. And you can buy it in any supermarket, generally in the WHOLE FOODS aisle. If you’re looking for something interesting for lunch, this is the perfect dish. You can do it the night before, stick it in some tupperware and leave it in the fridge just ready to grab as you head out to work in the morning.
SHALLOTS OF TASTE: My prawn and quinoa dish will give you something to look forward to at lunchtime
Ingredients
- Quinoa
- Two eschalion/banana shallots or three normal shallots
- A handful of mushrooms, chestnut or forestiere
- Raw king prawns
- 3 or 4 Cherry tomatoes sliced in half (optional)
- Bag of mixed salad leaves containing spinach and rocket preferably
Method
- The quinoa takes the longest to cook, so put the kettle on to boil, empty a cup of quinoa into a pan and add two cups of water. (You use the two to one method to cook quinoa. So if you use more or less just adjust the water accordingly) Bring back to the boil and turn the heat down so the quinoa is simmering. Cover with a tight lid – you can cover with foil first if your lid doesn’t fit very well. Leave for about 15 minutes and check. You’ll know it’s cooked because all the water will be absorbed and the quinoa grains will have a little curly tail which wasn’t visible before.
- Once the quinoa has been cooking about 10 minutes, roughly chop the mushrooms, shallots and half the tomatoes.
- Melt a tablespoon of coconut oil in a frying pan and add the shallots, mushrooms and tomatoes. Add a pinch of sea salt and black pepper and stir fry for three or four minutes over a medium heat so that the mushrooms start to release some juice and the shallots soften.
- By this time the quinoa should be ready. So check it. If it is, fluff it with a fork. Take it off the heat, and leave the lid half on so any last moisture can evaporate but it stays warm.
- Add the king prawns to the stir fry and continue to cook for about two minutes or until cooked.
- If you want, you can add a drizzle of olive oil to the quinoa for flavour when you serve. Plate up with the quinoa on first, then add the mushrooms, prawns etc on top and put a handful of salad leaves on the side. Drizzle the salad with a little organic balsamic vinegar if you want.
