Name: Prawn salad with pearl couscous
Yield: Serves 2
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 1 handful Thai basil leaves; 1 handful coriander (cilantro) leaves; 125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) boiling water; 1 Lebanese (short) cucumber, finely diced; 1 long red chilli, seeded and finely chopped; 1 handful mint leaves; 2 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar; 12 large (500 g/1 lb 2 oz) cooked prawns (shrimp), peeled and deveined, tails left intact; 2 kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced; 2 vine-ripened tomatoes, finely diced; 1 tablespoon rice vinegar; 40 g (1½ oz/¼ cup) pearl couscous; 1 tablespoon lime juice; 1½ tablespoons fish sauce

Preparation info

Serves
2

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

A Simple Table

By Michele Cranston

Published 2016

About

A zesty Asian-style salad that just screams ‘summer’, this recipe can of course be enjoyed at any time of the year, whenever you feel like the refreshing flavours of lime, cucumber and fresh herbs. If you prefer, replace the prawns with chargrilled squid or poached chicken.

I’ve used pearl couscous here–a large, round couscous–because of its slightly chewy texture and its ability to soak up the lovely flavours of the dressing. It’s sometimes called Israeli couscous or moghrabieh; lo