speedy spiced rice with lemony prawns

When I was asked to be chef of the week on Sara Cox’s BBC 2 radio show I was told I’d only have a few hours to create a recipe using the ingredients one of her listeners called in with. I was given prawns, onions and mushrooms and this is what I came up with.

Side note – I’m actually allergic to prawns so I made this and delivered it to my friend so she could have it for lunch. She gave it a 10 out of 10.

This recipe could be ready in about 15 minutes if you’re a fast chopper. The rice is super versatile and can be used alongside any type of protein. Play around with the veg – add grated carrot, frozen peas or sweetcorn, chopped peppers or any chopped greens.

If you’re not serving the rice with the prawns, add lemon, chilli and chopped greens into the rice before serving.

You can listen back on BBCSounds here I’m on just after the 5pm news on Tuesday 22nd, Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th April 2025.

Watch me make this all the way through, so you can feel fully confident, in this 8 minute video on my youtube channel.

Cook with me in person or online. Find out how here.

Learn how to safely cook, freeze and reuse leftover rice here.

Ingredients (serves 2 people)

• 1 onion
• Olive oil
• Fine sea salt
• 250g chestnut mushrooms
• Half a teaspoon cumin seeds
• Quarter of a teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Quarter of a teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
• 1 cup of cooked brown or white rice
• 1 clove garlic
• 200g raw king prawns
• Half a lemon
• 30g basil, rocket or flatleaf parsley
• Chilli flakes or black pepper

To make

1. Cut the onion in half, peel, then finely slice each half into half moon shapes. The thinner the better. Add to a hot frying pan on a medium-high heat with a glug of olive oil and a pinch of salt. The salt draws the liquid from the onion to make it sweeter faster.

2. While that cooks, finely chop the mushrooms.

3. Once the onions are sticky and sweet, after about 10 minutes of cooking, add the mushrooms and cook until the liquid has come out of, then evaporated out, of the mushrooms. This takes about 3 minutes on a high heat.

4. Add a sprinkle of cumin seeds, smoked paprika and a pinch of cinnamon and stir for a minute. Then add the cold cooked rice and stir well. Keep cooking for a couple of minutes so that the rice absorbs the flavours. Then scrape into a bowl and keep warm wile you cook the prawns in the same pan – no need to wash it!

5. Heat more oil in the frying pan and add the raw prawns along with finely chopped garlic. Stir fry until the prawns are cooked through. Then take off the heat and add chopped rocket or basil, lemon zest and juice and chilli flakes and plonk on top of the rice. 

And there you have speedy spiced rice with lemony prawns. Enjoy!

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