Prawn, Mango & Avocado Salad with Lettuce Cups

Review by Jackie and Julia

Why did we make this?

This was our Christmas 2023 starter. Our Christmases are a bit different to most in that we don’t have a set/traditional menu. Rather, every year around November we have a think about what we would love to make the most and go from there. Our menus feature a lot of Alison Roman recipes, but we also seek inspiration from other places.

We live in Australia so having prawns for Christmas is a must (in fact, that probably has been the only constant for our last few Christmases!). Jackie found this recipe on TikTok and it looked amazing.

What did we love?

This is perfect for summer. It has a great combination of flavours from the crunch of lettuce (and peanuts, if unlike us, you remember to add them!) to the tang of the mangos, topped off with the creaminess of the prawns and avocado.

The recipe calls for Calypso mangoes, but our preference was for something more tangy and sour so we used Kensington Pride mangoes instead. We’re very fortunate that during summer in Australia, most supermarkets will have a variety of mangoes available, but if that’s not the case where you live, then any ripe mango will do.

The Vietnamese inspired dressing was really the chef’s kiss. We love really strong, tangy flavours and I think we could have just consumed the dressing on its own. Vietnamese food is generally very fresh, and this was no exception. It complemented the lettuce and salad perfectly.

As an added bonus, this salad was super simple, easy and fast to make - perfect for any beginner cook, or even the pro chef who enjoys chopping away fresh ingredients. Plus, it’s also healthy, so the perfect starter to balance out other more heavy Christmas meals.

As a reminder, please do not forget to add the peanuts! By the time we realised what was missing it was too late and we had consumed most of the salad. It was still delicious, but the peanuts would have made it even better.

What did we not love?

Peeling all those prawns! It’s definitely not a task that we love doing, and it was particularly hard as we had already been on our feet for a good few hours cooking other meals. However, if you have multiple hands on deck, then you should divide up the tasks (good old division of labour). For us, Jessica peeled the prawns, Julia removed the poo, and Jackie did the chopping.

Recipe credit: https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSNKjJWLq/