Spanish Scrambled Eggs with Asparagus and Prawns (or Mushrooms) - Revuelto de Esparragos con Gambas

Fantastic lunch or light meal, simple ingredients but absolutely delicious!

When quick, easy and totally tasty is the objective, this is a dish that ticks all the boxes and not only that, it's deceptively healthy despite tasting rather decadent!
             
 
Serves one, easily doubled. 295 calories per serving made with prawns, 251 made with mushrooms (for the vegetarian option). 

You could just use one egg, and ½ tbsp milk and knock off 91 calories if you prefer, for a lighter snack (196/152 calories), but two eggs makes it into more of a satisfying dish with a nice amount of protein. Mix it up with different vegetables and/or Serrano ham, Chorizo, or even some smoked salmon (not quite so Spanish!) scattered over the top at the end!


Ingredients

• 75g fine/wild asparagus (with the woody ends snapped off*) [21]
• ½ tsp olive oil (or 5 sprays pure olive oil, e.g. Bertolli spray) [23]
• 75g cooked large king prawns**, de-veined [60] OR 100g (chestnut) mushrooms, cleaned and quartered [16]
• 1 garlic clove, very finely sliced (or crushed if you prefer) [6]
• 2 medium free-range eggs (circa 58g each) [175]
• 1x 15ml tbsp semi-skimmed milk (or dairy free substitute) [7]
• 15-20 chives, chopped into 1 inch lengths (about a tbsp chopped) [1]
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper [1]
• ½ tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley [1]

Method
Beat the eggs with the milk and some freshly ground black pepper and salt (about ¼ teaspoon). Have a warmed plate standing by to serve your food on. 

Heat the oil in a medium-sized non-stick pan. Add the asparagus, cover the pan (so it cooks in its own steam) and toss a few times while cooking (remove the lid to do this!) until they are tender to your liking, and have slightly browned on one or two sides, for about 3-5 minutes.
 
[For the mushrooms version, remove the asparagus (or green beans) at this point, onto a warm plate, add the mushrooms to the pan and cook in the residual oil for a few minutes until cooked to your liking, then add the asparagus back to the pan with the garlic for a minute until warmed through again. Continue from where you add the eggs to the pan.]

Add the prawns, and toss for a minute to warm through (longer if raw), then add the garlic for another 30 seconds. 
 
Add the beaten eggs and chives to the pan, and stir/toss until they are just creamy and starting to set (but not concrete!) and serve immediately, with another grind of fresh black pepper and the chopped parsley scattered over the top. Enjoy!

With mushrooms instead of prawns...

Experiment with other vegetables - onions, peppers and courgettes are good; try with Serrano ham cut into strips, or diced/sliced Chorizo sizzled, or maybe even some smoked salmon cut up and scattered over at the end.

Notes
*You will probably need about 100g of asparagus to leave you with 75g once you’ve snapped off the woody ends – to do this, gently bend the asparagus, more towards the bottom half, and it will snap just at the part where it becomes woody. You can save these in the fridge, and add to a vegetable soup which you’re going to blend (great with broccoli stalks, an onion, a small/medium potato, some vegetable or chicken stock, finished with a little blue cheese!).

**I used fully defrosted Sainsbury’s ‘Taste The Difference’ frozen, cooked and peeled, jumbo king prawns (which have been de-veined, although check for the odd one that might have not been done properly – a sharp knife down the middle of the back will sort it out – just pull out the dark ‘vein’). You can use small prawns, raw prawns, whatever you prefer, just remember to remove any dark veins down the back of the prawn with a sharp knife, and adjust the cooking times as appropriate – if cooked, they just need warming through, if raw, you need to cook them until they’ve completely changed colour to pink, and are cooked through.