Dukkah Spiced Butternut and Prawn Salad

Yudhika Sujanani  takes your taste buds on a spice adventure as she shows you how to revamp “old favorites “dishes with a bit sugar and a hint of spice. On the menu is a delicious French Casserole with a touch of Saffron, an aromatic Egyptian spiced Dukkah Spiced Butternut & Prawn Salad and for dessert; she prepares a gorgeous Chocolate Pecan Nut pie with Dates.

Ingredients

• Dukkah
  • Tip: This makes one large batch – you can halve the recipe to make enough for two salads.  Store the remaining dukkah in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid until needed.
  • 200g roasted hazelnuts
  • 30ml cumin seeds
  • 30ml coriander seeds
  • 80g sesame seeds
  • 10ml black pepper
  • 10ml flaked salt
• For the salad
  • 150g fresh baby rocket
  • 500g roasted butternut
  • 16 large prawns
  • 20ml sunflower oil
  • 2 spring onions, finely sliced
  • Fresh coriander, to garnish
  • Fresh parsley, to garnish
• For the Salad dressing (Combine the following ingredients for the dressing in a glass jar and shake well).
  • 50ml olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • Pinch of salt
  • 50ml honey
  • 50ml lemon juice

Method

1. Preparation for  Dukkah
   1. Heat pan on medium and add the cumin, coriander and sesame seeds.
   2. Stir the seeds until the sesame seeds are toasted and the spices are fragrant.
   3. Leave the seeds to cool.
   4. Place the hazelnuts into a mixing bowl and use a stick blender to blitz in short bursts – cover the bowl with a tea towel while blitzing to keep the ground nuts in the bowl.
   5. Use a mortar to lightly crush the spices and sesame seeds in the pan to release the flavours.
   6. Crush the black pepper in the mortar using a pestle.
   7. Add the spices, sesame seeds and black pepper to the hazelnuts.
   8. Season with salt and toss lightly to combine.
2. To cook the prawns:
   1. Heat 20ml sunflower oil in a Pan.
   2. Saute the prawns until the tails change colour and start to coil.
3. To assemble the salad:
   1. Place the rocket onto a platter and top with the roasted butternut.
   2. Drizzle some salad dressing over and sprinkle a little dukkah over.
   3. Top with prawns and pour over the remaining salad dressing.
   4. Sprinkle with dukkah again.
   5. Garnish with spring onion, chopped coriander and parsley.