Plate of prawn noodles with a glass of rose wine on a rustic background

I don’t often use shortcuts when cooking. If anything I try to make it harder for myself by taking on complicated multi-step recipes, making my own pastry and so on.

But a challenge posed by Argos recently had me thinking… can you make a meal in only five minutes? The answer is you can and it will be absolutely delicious but you will need to employ some cunning shortcuts.

Table set with three plates of Chilli Prawn Noodles

After a bit of dithering I settled on Chilli Prawn Noodles for my five minute meal – a favourite takeaway meal of mine (from our not-so-local Japanese restaurant).

My version is a little simplified, but no less delicious. If you are looking for something a little bit spicy, filling and easy, you really can’t go wrong with this garlic prawn noodle stir fry!

You can view a video of me preparing it (try to ignore the kids making noise in the background. If you ask kids to be quiet they will do the exact opposite…)

How to Make Prawn Stir Fry Noodles

↓ For the full ingredients and detailed method, jump to the recipe card.

STEP 1. Heat a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in a wok. Once the oil is hot, add the frozen onion, garlic, chilli and ginger. Fry, stirring continuously, for a minute. Note: use a low calorie cooking spray for a SW version.

STEP 2. Add the raw prawns and stir in the ketchup and sugar. Add the soy sauce and cherry tomatoes, stirring them in and breaking them up with your spoon. Cook for 3 minutes. Note: use sweetener for the SW version.

STEP 3. Once the prawns are mostly pink add the wok-ready noodles and stir them in to coat in the sauce. Cook for another minute (or until the prawns are cooked through). Serve with a sprinkling of fresh basil (Thai basil preferably) and a little freshly ground pepper.

Chilli Prawn Noodles – Tips and Tricks

In order to keep the cooking time down to a mere five minutes I used: frozen chopped onions, garlic, ginger and chilli. You could also use garlic, chilli and ginger paste from a tube or jar.
Canned cherry tomatoes in their juice.
Raw prawns (shrimp) cook very quickly but you could use pre-cooked ones as well.
Straight to wok egg noodles. Udon noodles can also be used. For a Slimming World version you should use dried noodles which are free.

Slimming World Variation

For a practically Syn-Free Slimming World version use low calorie cooking spray, dried noodles preferably and sweetener instead of sugar. A tablespoon of reduced sugar ketchup or hot chilli sauce is only .5 Syns.

Make this meal suitable for Extra Easy SP by replacing the noodles with courgetti (zucchini noodles, a.k.a zoodles). Simply stir the courgette noodles in after the dish has cooked to coat them in the spicy sauce.

One large courgette will probably be enough to serve two but you can always add more if you like. Some supermarkets are now selling spiralled vegetable noodles and cauliflower rice.

Have You Made My Chilli Prawn Noodles?

Post a photo on my Facebook page, share it on Instagram, or save it to Pinterest with the tag #Nusde. I can’t wait to see your take on it!