thai prawn noodle salad

the warm weather is making me want warm weather food which means light fresh flavours. asian flavours are high on my list and this salad was a winner, largely due to the thai dressing that i made. it was based on a rowley leigh recipe – he serves it with lobster (which i'd love to do) but i went down-market with my rice noodles, grated carrots and prawns!

the original recipe also calls for deskinned, deseeded finely chopped tomatoes but i decided on the low-effort option of just quartering the baby plum tomatoes i had in, which were absolutely packed with flavour, and as a result provided a lovely burst of flavour every now and then.

thai dressing (for a 3-4 person noodle salad)

1 large shallot, finely sliced

½ a teaspoon chilli flakes (i tend to prefer fresh chillies, red or green)

 l teaspoon of sea salt

2 limes

1 lemon

15g palm sugar (i used soft brown muscovado sugar)

2 tablespoons of fish sauce

1 bunch fresh coriander

place the shallot in your serving bowl. finely grate the zest of the limes, add to the shallots, then add the juice of both limes and lemon. add the sugar and the fish sauce.  add your salad ingredients and leave to macerate for up to an hour. when you’re ready to serve add the coriander leaves.