Prawn noodle salad with soy dressing

Salads make the perfect meal for dinner in spring and summer. I’m going to show you how to whip up a prawn noodle salad with soy dressing. The combo of cooked prawns and honeydew melon tastes so fresh and delicious.

First, prep the noodles. Place vermicelli rice noodles in a heatproof bowl and pour over enough boiling water to cover. I’m going to set this aside for about 2 minutes so the noodles soften. Drain and refresh under cold water – this cools the noodles down quickly so they don’t get too soft and they’re ready to use in the salad.

I’m using the same method for the veggies. Place snow peas, sugar snap peas and peas in another heatproof bowl. Again, pour over enough boiling water to cover them and stand for about 30 seconds. This brings out the bright green colour and keeps them nice and crisp. Drain the veggies and refresh them under cold water. Make sure you drain them well so your salad won’t be watery.

Now for the melon. This adds a sweet burst of flavour to the salad. To make balls from the honeydew, you need a melon baller. If you don’t have one, try using a rounded measuring spoon, or just cut the melon into wedges or squares. Here’s how to do it. Take the melon baller and gently twist it around to make balls.

Presentation is key to a show-stopping salad. I like to go for a variety of shapes and colours in the ingredients – this gives you different tastes and textures and makes the dish look amazing. Here’s how to make cucumber ribbons using a vegetable peeler. All you do is run the peeler along the cucumber to make ribbons. Keep turning the cucumber over as you go.

The hero ingredient of this salad is the prawns. Using cooked prawns makes it really easy, but if you want you could barbecue some raw prawns to add to the salad. With these ones, all I need to do is peel and devein them. Start by removing the head of the prawn, twisting it off like this. Then pull away the legs – this makes it easier to remove the shell along the body. For the best look, leave the tail intact. Now to devein the prawn – this means removing the tube that runs down the back of the prawn. The fastest way is to pull away the thin piece of flesh along the back. Or run a small sharp knife along the back of the prawn, then carefully lift out the vein – this way you’re not losing any of the prawn meat.

To make the soy dressing for the salad, take a small bowl and add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, caster sugar, ginger and sesame oil. I’m also adding a little chopped chilli. Whisk until combined.

To serve up the salad, divide up the noodles. Top with the pea mixture, melon balls, cucumber, some mint leaves and the prawns. Drizzle over the dressing.