Pasta with Prawns and Kaffir Lime Leaves

One thing that I love about pasta is its versatility. They go well with practically anything, and this enables you to tweak recipes to suit particular preferences or even create new ones, just like I did. The idea of creating an East meets West dish is the inspiration behind this, and as far as the final product is concerned, I would say I aced it in the taste department.

This pasta I made with kaffir lime leaves, tiger prawns and chillies. Kaffir lime leaves and chillies being typical Asian ingredients add that perfect amount of Eastern flavours and fragrance to the dish. Kaffir lime leaves not only lend in a lemony flavour to the pasta, it also helps in giving it a herbal-citrus flavour that is quite comparable to one of those aroma therapy stress-relieving oils.


Staying true to my attempts at healthy eating, I’m using whole wheat pasta noodles for this dish. Not only is it excellent at absorbing all the flavours around it, but its very high in dietary fibre and magnesium as well. Their unique taste lends a much desired twist to this dish, and it also helps that they contain no cholesterol. Plus, for all you weight watchers, whole wheat pasta = less guilt! So rejoice!
Besides tasting great, this dish is really simple to prepare and takes quite a short time to do so. All you have to do is cook the prawns with the chillies and kaffir lime leaves to add further layers of flavours to it before mixing them with the cooked pasta. The prawns, chillies and kaffir lime leaves combo already have a strong flavour, and when mixed with the pasta, its flavour mellows to that perfect notch. Healthy eating habits are so much easier with delicious healthy food. Yummy! 

Pasta with Prawns and Kaffir Lime LeavesPreparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves: 6


3/4 packet whole wheat dried spaghetti pasta
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
12 medium size tiger prawns, deveined and skin removed
3 garlic cloves, skin removed and crushed
2 birds eye chillies, finely sliced
6 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 litres water + 3 tablespoon salt


1. Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat
2. Add prawns and saute until prawns changes colour then add garlic and chillies and saute for further 1-2 minute, just before garlic turns brown
3. Add kaffir lime leaves and turn off heat
4. Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling salted water for 7 minutes or until al-dente
5. Drain pasta with colander and add drained pasta into pan with cooked prawns. Mix ingredients thoroughly
6. Add parmesan cheese and stir through
7. Serve immediately

Source:http://www.chopstickdiner.com