My mum’s prawn curry has to be one of my all-time favourite dishes that I look forward to every month! We tend to limit the amount of prawns we eat because of the high level of LDL cholesterol in prawns but once or twice a month we can’t go wrong!
I looooove the delicious sauce my mother makes, it is absolutely divine, and back when I was eating chappati, I could have 1 or 2 easily by dipping then piece by piece into the sauce and devouring, without even having touched the prawns! Mum usually adds potatoes but I felt that wasn’t enough for what I wanted to achieve.
I believe in serving you up the tastiest, healthiest, most nutrient-rich and of course spicy, food as possible to help you continue to make fitness gains without compromising on taste! Who said Indian food was unhealthy?! As you may already know, I am off the chappati and my mission is to create spicy, tasty, healthy, complex-carb rich food without the need for refined carbs, which block my plumbing and, well, I really am not going back to that painful place! Therefore, protein-rich pillau quinoa, with the method we use to cook pillau rice, is the way forward for me and for you if you want!
Now my mother uses fresh unpeeled and uncooked king prawns which I love because their shell adds to the gorgeous sauce, however, being someone who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty whilst eating (call me lazy and particular if you wish!), I decided to go for the easier option of shelled and cooked prawns!
INGREDIENTS
Spicy Green Prawns
1 onion
1 red onion
3 spring onions
4 cloves of garlic (I love garlic in my food!)
1 cm of ginger
1 cm haldi (not tamarind as I say in the video, my apologies!)
1 red chilli
1 green chilli
1 long red pepper
1 long green pepper
1 medium cauliflower
2 heads broccoli
1 carrot
150g cooked king prawns/300g fresh king prawns
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 tablespoon dried coriander
1 litre of filtered and boiled water
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
200ml of filtered water, boiled
INGREDIENTS
Pillau Quinoa
100g quinoa
1 onion
4 cardamom seeds
8 cloves
8 black pepper seeds
200ml of filtered water, boiled.
Salt
Olive oil
INSTRUCTIONS
Spicy Green Prawns
- In a saucepan on ¾ heat, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil (put the water on to boil for the quinoa);
- Slice and dice the onions (hold back the green leaves of the spring onions until the end), garlic (I cut the garlic knobs up, press them in a garlic crusher and add them directly into the saucepan) and ginger and add to the saucepan to sauté. Stir regularly until the mix starts to bronze;
- To the onions, add in the tin of chopped tomatoes, dried coriander, tamarind and a half a teaspoon of salt and chop in the chillies (if you want your dish less spicy, add the chillies in with the other vegetables in point 7);
- Allow to simmer and continue to stir gently until the water evaporates;
- Slice the carrots, and cut the broccoli and cauliflower into manageable chunks;
- Add the boiling water to the saucepan and then add in the carrots, broccoli and cauliflower (and stir gently for a couple of minutes);
- Turn the heat down to a quarter, taste the soup and add salt and pepper to taste;
- Cover with the lid and leave the mix to cook for about 10 minutes;
- Add the prawns and chopped spring onion leaves and cover for 5 minutes;
- Feel free to add any coriander to finish and you are ready to eat!
Pillau Quinoa
- Begin making your quinoa preparations at point 6 of cooking the spicy green prawns;
- In a saucepan on ¾ heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil (put the water on to boil);
- Slice and dice in the onion and stir, sauté until the onions caramelise;
- Add in the spice mix of cardamom, black pepper, cloves and cinnamon sticks;
- Add in the boiling water and a ½ teaspoon of salt;
- Add the quinoa and stir gently. I gently rinse the quinoa first in lukewarm water and then drain it before adding it to the saucepan;
- Allow the quinoa to simmer, turn the heat down to a quarter, and cover with the lid;
- Check on it 3 to 5 minutes later and gently turn the quinoa over with a plastic or wooden spoon to ensure you keep your quinoa seeds in tact;
- Repeat step 8 until the quinoa is cooked and all the water evaporates;
- You are now ready to eat!
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Eating time: 15 minutes
Serves up to 4 people
I made enough curry to last us another day and my mother and I like to eat our quinoa fresh!
Let me know how you get on and please feel free to provide feedback 🙂