Garlic prawns (or mushrooms), lemon rice and sweet cucumber raita

A prawn is a perfect, pint-sized piece of low fat protein. So I like to serve them smothered in olive oil, on a pillow of pure carbohydrate, next to a dollop of dairy.

This is really easy and really “delissiuss” (copyright Matthew Bradby).

The idea of garlic prawns first came to me via Shaun’s mum. She cooks (I suspect, really big) prawns in butter. It’s really, REALLY good but perhaps not a version to make too often. Sad face.

What to use – serves 2

200g brown rice

juice of half a lemon

– fishy – 250g king prawns

– veggie – 250g mushrooms

2-4 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

handful chopped parsley

for the raita

1 sweet cucumber, finely chopped – I use these

few leaves of mint – chopped

3 table spoons natural yoghurt

seat salt and pepper to taste

How to use it

Put your rice on to boil. Brown rice will typically take 25 minutes.

Prepare your raita. Put your yoghurt into a bowl. Chop your sweet cucumber and mint. Stir into the yoghurt, with a pinch of salt if you use it. I love the sweetness and freshness of this as a balance to the lemon and garlic. As ever, adjust the ingredients to your taste.

If using mushrooms, wash/brush them and halve them / cut into bite size pieces.

Chop up your parsley. Peel your garlic.

Five to 10 minutes before the rice is due to be cooked, put a large frying pan on and warm to a medium heat.

Crush and add your garlic, parsley and mushrooms, or garlic, parsley and prawns, and stir. You’ll want to cook for about 4-5 minutes. Garlic needs to be cooked (or your digestive system will let you know about it) but not burnt. You can add a sprinkle of sea salt if you like. You could add a squeeze of lemon if you like too, but I prefer unadulterated garlic for this bit and there is already lemon in the rice.

Drain your rice. Put it back in the pan and squeeze the half a lemon, add a pinch of salt if you like, and stir well. Taste. If you’d like it more lemony or salty, squeeze/sprinkle in a bit more.

Pile the rice into your bowls. Spatula at the ready, scoop the mushrooms or prawns on top of the rice, making sure you get all the garlicky olive oil out of the pan. Serve with a spoon of raita.

Mmm rating: mm mm mm

Cost per person: Fishy £6, veggie £2

Calories: Fishy – 645, Veggie – 560

What to listen to while cooking: Years and Years – King

What to watch while eating: Citizenfour – I hope to end up on some kind of government blacklist for recommending this. If you haven’t seen it yet, do. Warning: you will develop a crush on Edward Snowden.