I love the taste of rich juicy lemon garlic prawns with a little bit of saltiness and tang together with good quality wholemeal pasta. A wholesome dish that is light, filling and perfect for a quick weeknight dinner in less than 30 minutes.
Coming home after work can be a drag when there isn’t much in the house to eat for dinner. You know, when you’ve worked all day, maybe skipped lunch because you forgot to take your wallet or because you left your lunch on the kitchen bench, or perhaps because your boss called you into a meeting that was supposed to go for 10 minutes, but actually went for 2 hours!
I have had many of these days! Coming home hungry from work is where planning and convenience collide. Something I still sometimes struggle with even though I am a food blogger!
3 different ways I have made Lemon Garlic Prawns
- With fresh green prawns: head removed, then cooking them with the shell and tail still on
- With fresh green prawns: head, shell and tail removed before cooking
- With frozen green prawns: these come with shell removed and tail on
In this particular recipe, I used option 2 as I had just been to the seafood market the day before and managed to snag some juicy fresh prawns fresh off the boat!
With options 1 and 3 the tail is very easy to remove once cooked. Eating is just a bit more “hands on” as you might need a little side dish on the table for prawn bits and maybe a water dipping bowl for your fingers.
Whilst I used fresh green prawns for this recipe, it absolutely works equally well with frozen green prawns. You should be able to get these from most big supermarkets. They come with the heads off, and tails on. All you need to do is defrost them first to get the moisture out and the you can cook them with the tails on. The difference between fresh and frozen prawns isn’t even noticeable to me. And lets face it, the convenience of having something you can pull from the freezer that you might of bought a few weeks ago, is well, convenient.
This is one of those light dishes, like my Salt and Pepper Squid Salad and incredibly moreish like my Garlic Prawn and Pesto Pizza that won’t weigh you down. Its satisfying, full of flavour and you’re not going to have to spend heaps of time in the kitchen, or have 15 different things to wash up!
These are the recipes I like.
Minimal. Without a lot of fuss, but with lots of flavour. A dish you can look forward to after putting in a full days work. Its like your reward.
Given that I am a serious fan of seafood, especially living right by the beach, I try to include a prawn dish in my diet each week. They are so easy and quick to cook with and healthy. 100 grams of prawns contains about 25 grams of protein. This is similar to the same amount of chicken or beef. Beauty! Sometimes, I just don’t feel like eating “meat”, but seafood on the other hand….Always!
The other good thing for me, being that I am conscious of my weight, is that prawns are lower in calories than chicken and beef. Another plus for eating prawns!
Other quick midweek seafood dinner recipes you might have missed are this bold One Pot Spicy Moroccan Fish Stew – so easy to make, and no weird ingredients. I make it often and it never disappoints.
You might also like this Tuna Mornay Pasta Bake – for when all you have in the cupboard is a tin of tuna and bag of pasta, and that little packet of cream of mushroom packet soup that you bought six months ago. This is the dish to make. Super easy comfort food!
TIP: Instead of putting prawn scraps in the kitchen bin and having everything in the house then smell of prawn, wrap it up in newspaper and tie tightly in a plastic bag and put into the freezer until bin day. This way, you’ll avoid any unpleasant, shall we say…aromas!
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Lemon Garlic Prawns and Spaghetti Pasta
Ingredients
- 400 grams /b. 0.9 lUncooked Prawns Fresh or Frozen
- 4 tablespoons Crushed garlic
- 2 tablespoons Lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons Butter
- 2 tablespoons Water
- 2 tablespoons Dijon Mustard
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons Chopped Basil
- 8 Cherry tomatoes quartered
- 200 grams / 7 oz. Spaghetti pasta
Instructions
- Heat a bowl of water to boiling. Add the spaghetti pasta and cook to you your liking, usually about 10 minutes is what works for me.
- Remove shells and devein prawns
- In a bowl, place the garlic, lemon juice, melted butter, water, Dijon mustard, soy sauce, salt and pepper and mix with a whisk to combine
- Pat dry prawns with a paper towel to remove moisture and add to a hot wok. Toss to cook, until the start to turn orange.
- Once they are just cooked, add the garlic and lemon mix. Toss to combine.
- Add the chopped basil at the last minute.
- Add pasta to the wok and stir in along with the cherry tomatoes and fresh shallots
- Plate up and serve with a slice of lemon.
Notes
- When cooking the spaghetti, I like to break it in half before putting it into the water so that it cooks evenly and it makes it easier to eat.
- You could also use frozen green prawns and thaw them in the microwave on low/med for a few minutes. Just make sure to drain the moisture before putting them in the wok.
- You could either remove the tails or leave them on during the cooking process and remove them once the dish is plated up and you are eating it. It is really a matter of personal preference which way you go.
Nutrition
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I’m a big fan of seafood. will have to try this one. Looks nice and simple.