Prawn and avocado salad: two minutes in the pan and done
A dinner-party salad you can make faster than you can lay the table. The whole difficulty comes down to two, at most three minutes — that is all the prawns need, depending on their size. You can read the moment from their shape: a cooked prawn curls into a C, an overcooked one clenches into an O and turns rubbery. The second rule concerns the avocado: cut it last, just before serving.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Prawns 10 min
- Salad 10 min
- Serving 5 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneDry the prawns
Pat the thawed prawns thoroughly dry with kitchen paper. This is not cosmetic: a wet prawn dropped into a pan first has to boil its water away, and while it does the inside cooks through, so by the time it colours it is already overdone.
Ingredients: 400 g peeled prawns · 3 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp olive oil · ½ tsp chilli flakes · ½ tsp salt
TipThaw frozen prawns overnight in the fridge or for about 15 minutes in cold water in a sealed bag. Not in warm water or a microwave — they lose their firmness, and the microwave partly cooks them.
A dry prawn browns, a wet one boilsFry for two to three minutes
Heat the oil hard, add the prawns in one layer and fry 60–90 seconds, turn and fry another 60–90 seconds, until pink and opaque right through. Add the garlic, chilli and salt for the last 20 seconds. Take them out immediately — in a hot pan they keep cooking.
TipA prawn shaped like a <b>C</b> is done. Curled into a tight <b>O</b> it is overcooked and rubbery. It is one of the simplest indicators in cooking.
Letter C: done. Letter O: too lateMix the dressing
Whisk the lime juice with the oil, honey, salt and pepper. Lime, not lemon: its acidity is more floral and suits the sweetness of prawns better. The honey softens the acidity of the juice.
Ingredients: 2 pcs limes, juice · 4 tbsp olive oil · 1 tsp honey · ½ tsp salt · ½ tsp pepper
Lime instead of lemon, honey for balancePrepare the vegetables and avocado
Tear the lettuce into large pieces, halve the tomatoes, slice the onion thinly, pour boiling water over it in a sieve and drain to take off the edge. Last of all, halve the avocados, remove the stones, scoop out whole halves with a spoon, slice them and squeeze a little lime juice over at once.
Ingredients: 2 pcs avocados · 10 pcs romaine lettuce · 200 g cherry tomatoes · ½ pcs red onion · ½ bunch fresh coriander
Avocado cut last, scooped straight from the skinAssemble and serve at once
Arrange the lettuce, tomatoes and onion on a wide platter and dress with half the dressing. Add the avocado slices, top with the still-warm prawns, pour over the rest of the dressing and scatter with coriander. Serve immediately.
Ingredients: 2 pcs avocados · 10 pcs romaine lettuce · 200 g cherry tomatoes · ½ pcs red onion · ½ bunch fresh coriander
Vegetables, avocado, warm prawns on top
Before you start
Choosing an avocado
A ripe one yields under thumb pressure at the stem end without being soft inside. A firm one ripens in a paper bag with an apple in 2–3 days.
From the grill
Prawns on skewers, 90 seconds a side over high heat. The smoke contrasts beautifully with the richness of the avocado.
Shell-on prawns
Often cheaper, and juicier when fried in the shell, but they need peeling. Keep the shells: fried and covered with water they give an intense stock for fish soup in 20 minutes.
Without prawns
Grilled chicken, smoked salmon or fried halloumi. The lime dressing suits all of them unchanged.
