How to make an avocado, prawn and mango salad with sweet mango lime dressing

A hearty, main-course salad of ripe avocado, sweet mango and fresh meaty Honduran king prawns marinated with lime leaves. Cook the prawns in a pan on your hob or sizzle them on the barbecue for a bank holiday treat.

Ingredients (serves 2)

For the marinade

7 lime leaves, finely sliced

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon rapeseed oil

¼ teaspoon black pepper

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

For the salad

10 raw Honduran king prawns

Juice of 1 lime

1 large avocado

½ medium mango

1/2 medium cucumber

2 little gem lettuces, shredded

For the dressing

1 tablespoon crème fraiche

½ small red pepper, diced

1 tablespoon of your favourite sweetener, or to taste

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Method

To make the marinade, put the sliced lime leaves and salt into a mortar and pestle and grind to a fine paste, mix in the oil, black pepper and red pepper flakes. Put the prawns into a bowl, pour over the marinade and mix to coat, leave to one side.

Squeeze the lime juice into a small bowl. Halve the avocado and remove the stone. Using a melon baller, scoop out balls of avocado flesh and drop into the lime juice, swirl around to totally cover the surface of the balls, this will prevent them from discolouring.

Halve the mango and remove the stone. Using a smaller melon baller, scoop out balls from one half of the mango, scrape the remaining flesh from the skin and put into a small jug to use in the dressing. Mangoes are quite high in carbs so only using half for the whole recipe will cut down the total carb count. The remaining half of the mango can be skinned, diced and frozen for use another time.

Peel the cucumber and cut in half lengthways. Using a teaspoon scoop out the seeds then slice into half-moons.

Heat a small frying pan on a medium heat and pour in the prawns and their marinade. Cook very gently until they turn pink and are cooked through. Remove the prawns to a plate lined with kitchen paper to soak up any excess oil and leave the pan and remaining marinade to cool.

Mix the crème fraîche, red pepper, sweetener and apple cider vinegar with the mango scrapings. Put a sieve over the jug and pour in the avocado balls so that the juice drips into the jug. Put the avocado balls to one side. Add the cooled prawn marinade to the other dressing ingredients and blend with an immersion blender until smooth and creamy. Leave to one side.

To serve, divide the shredded lettuce between two plates. Scatter the prepared salad ingredients over the lettuce and drizzle over the sweet mango lime dressing. Sprinkle over a pinch of red pepper flakes and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.