Words and photos by Susie Sandford Smith

This post, as, if I'm brutally honest, is most of what I write at the moment, is tinged with sadness. For all my bravado in my about me section, getting over the end of a very long and significant relationship and one that has taken up my entire adulthood, is tough and I am not doing that well at it. But this past week has been good, I'd say I've taken two steps forward and only one back so..., for the moment, things are on the up and this post is getting finished! On the 1st March I decided, AGAIN, to get on with it, all I have to do is stop looking to the last 28 years with Dan and start enjoying and making the most of the next 28+ years. Sounds simple. Ha! I should have that many left in me, right!?

For quite some time now, I've been seeing dishes pop up on the internet (mainly via Deliciously Ella and The Londoner) featuring courgette or cucumber spaghetti or noodles (affectionately termed courghetti and coodles). And, the recipes always say that if you don't have a spiraliser (the gadget used to noodle-ise your chosen fruit/veg) you can achieve a similiar effect with something like a potato peeler where, rather than noodles you would end up with ribbons. Now, I'm absolutely certain that ribbons of courgettes taste like..., ribbons of courgettes - what I had no idea about though, was whether eating something in a noodle shape would somehow trick the brain into thinking that it was eating noodles. There was nothing for it, I was going to have to acquire a spiraliser.

So, I put the word out and..BINGO, a spiraliser was given to me for my birthday by...Dan. This is significant because one of the things, apparently, that really wound Dan up about me was my constant food and diet obsessions, this fad here, that fad there and just..food, food, glorious FOOD (and drink) - ahhh...I love the stuff. I suppose now that he doesn't have to live with me it's safe to encourage my eating eccentricities. That or, it was just a sweet gift. (Or a little bit of both..mwah ha). Anyway, I was struck by this, it made me a little bit reflective and this post has taken a while to write.

Green thai prawn curry with courgette noodles

This recipe is reasonably simple and quick and would, I think, fall into the category of 'clean' eating. It does require you to have prepped everything in advance and to have all the ingredients ready as everything comes together at the same time. In this case I've made coodles, courgette noodles, but, were I to have made a bolognese type sauce, for example, the exact same coodles would then be courghetti. Genius.

Serves 1 hungry (or plain greedy) person or 2 (but up the coodles) not so hungry people

Ingredients

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 medium to large courgette - washed

1/2 lemongrass stalk - remove the outer leaf of a lemongrass stalk and then cut in half lenghtways, chop one half into chunks

1/2 red chilli - keep the seeds in and chop roughly

1/2 lime - juice and zest

2 tbsps cashew nuts

thumb size piece of root ginger - peeled and roughly chopped

small handful coriander - stalks and leaves

1/2 to 1 clove garlic (if desired, I don't use it but it would work with this dish)

1/2 onion - finely sliced

1 pack (175g) raw peeled king prawns

1 cup coconut milk

Pinch of sea salt

Soak the cashew nuts in a little water for three minutes. While the nuts are soaking prepare the lemongrass, chilli, ginger. Chop the coriander stalks into chunks and add, along with a few leaves, to a blender. Add the lemongrass, chilli, ginger, garlice (if using), lime zest and cashew nuts, along with the water they have been soaking in, to the blender. Blend all the ingredients for a minute or so until all the ingredients are well blended and you have a smooth liquidy paste.

Place a large pan of water on to boil.

Place a wok or frying pan over a high heat and add the tablespoon of coconut oil. Throw in the sliced onions and cook, stirring regularly, for about five minutes until the onions have softened and are starting to brown. Keep an eye on the onions and turn the heat down if they are showing any signs of burning!

Once the onions have softened, add the paste and turn the heat down to medium. Fry, stirring continuously, for two minutes. If the paste starts to catch, turn the heat down a bit more. After a couple of minutes add the coconut milk, stir, bring to the boil and then turn down the heat and let simmer for two to three minutes.

While the sauce is simmering, prepare your coodles according to your spiraliser instructions.

Your pan of water should have come to the boil by now. Turn it off and put the coodles in for two minutes. Lots of people don't bother blanching and serve their coodles raw but I wanted to give mine the best chance of being more like a noodle.

Whilst your coodles are blanching add the prawns to the sauce and cook for two to three minutes, stirring regularly, until all of the prawns have turned pink and are cooked through. Add a pinch of sea salt.

Drain the coodles and serve with the sauce as well as a large sprinkling of coriander leaves and a sqeeze of lime.

If you don't have a spiraliser, by all means try taking a vegetable peeler to your courgette to get long strips or...you know, serve with actual noodles, or...rice. (In joke at my house, apparently I'm going through a stage of suggesting that everything be served with rice).

I mean, I wasn't fooled, I was eating courgettes BUT, I wasn't not eating noodles!? I think I'll experiment with raw cucumber in salads and maybe try out a few other veg too.

To change this sauce up you could use chicken instead of prawns, just make sure that it's cooked through thoroughly, or beef would work well. Maybe add a few dashes of fish sauce and/or a tiny bit of sugar.

From the Archives: Green thai prawn curry with courgette noodles or...coodles.