Quick Thai Prawn and Pineapple Skewers

OK, so you have some plump and juicy delicious raw prawns (shrimp), and you want something quick and tasty to do with them?

Well, dig out that red Thai curry paste, and a few chunks of pineapple (you can even use tinned!) and a luscious treat is yours in minutes!

These are delicious cooked on the BBQ (and probably rather impressive too... little do your guests know how easy they are!), or just cook them under the grill, or on a griddle instead. It really doesn't matter as they will be full of flavour either way!

You can use a good quality ready-made Thai red curry paste, if you can't get hold of all the ingredients to make one yourself, or if you want to make your own, my recipe is here (includes Thermomix instructions).


Serves two as main with sides, or four as a starter or as a selection of dishes. Makes four skewers,  62 calories per skewer (124 calories for a portion of two skewers). Easily doubled, or more, for everyone.

Spicy Mirliton and Shrimp Soup

So, I bought these 'chayotes' a week ago, and had never cooked or eaten one before...

Turns out I've been missing out! They're very versatile, and can be eaten raw (they have a taste a little like a combination of raw courgette and melon, and a crisp texture a bit like an asian pear - more here in my blog about chayotes) or cooked, and they're low in calories too (only 19 calories per 100g).

So anyway, moving on from the ingredients, to the soup - this is a delicious, spicy Louisiana soup which tastes far more indulgent than it really is - blending half of the chayotes after cooking (but before adding the shrimp/prawns) gives it a nice rich thickness, a bit like when you blend potato into a soup. This gives you a nice hearty portion too, which is delicious on its own!

Serves two, 134 calories per serving (including maximum amounts of all ingredients).