This post is sponsored by HelloFresh. This post also contains affiliate links and if you make a purchase using one of these links, I'll receive a modest commission fee at no extra cost to you.
On the table in just 10 minutes, HelloFresh’s take on Malaysian coconut prawn laksa is both creamy and comforting – the perfect autumnal midweek meal!
Hunched over a steaming hot bowl emanating sweet-scented aromas, I slurp up a spoonful of silky coconut-infused broth, contentedly observing how its fragrant milky tones complement its subtle fieriness. Clutching my chopsticks, I dig into a mound of noodles, twirling as I go, before swiftly plunging them into my mouth, along with a tender king prawn.
I’m excited to be teaming up with meal delivery service, HelloFresh to recreate their coconut prawn laksa with mange tout and bok choy. After seeing how popular the Malaysian beef rendang recipe I shared after my trip to Borneo in March was, I had a feeling you’d love this laksa too. While I didn’t have the opportunity to taste authentic Malaysian laksa during my time in Sabah, I can only imagine just how good it must taste!
Traditionally, laksa is reserved for special occasions due to the lengthy time and seemingly endless list of ingredients needed to prepare it. Thankfully, however, HelloFresh’s 10-minute cheat version tastes delightfully good considering the minimal preparation and effort involved. It doesn’t contain the usual fish sauce or homemade laksa paste (more on that below), but there’s nothing to stop you experimenting with adding different ingredients or having a go at making your own paste.
This is just one of hundreds of nutritious family recipes you can select when you sign up for a HelloFresh subscription. Simply choose the dishes you want to eat and all the ingredients you need to prepare them will be delivered to your door, measured out into the exact quantities you’ll need to cook your meals.
Contents
How to make Malaysian-style prawn laksa in 10 minutes
Simply heat up a little sesame oil in a sauce pan (or, if you prefer, a non-stick frying pan or wok) and cook off around 1 tbsp of Thai yellow curry paste to allow the spices to bloom, stirring continuously.
Next, add the coconut milk, boiling water, peanut butter, red chilli and a pinch of sugar. Bring to a simmer.
Add the noodles to the pan, breaking them up to distribute them among the other ingredients. You can use dry or pre-cooked egg, ramen or rice noodles. I used these pre-cooked ramen noodles and they worked particularly well.
Tip the prawns, mangetout and pak choi into the pan and stir to combine. When shopping for your prawns, aim to buy sustainable prawns – just look for the blue MSC ecolabel. You can add different kinds of veg too if you like; I added some baby corn, which worked quite well. Cook for a further three to four minutes, until the prawns and noodles are cooked throughout.
Add the lime zest, soy sauce and a squeeze of lime juice. Taste and season with salt and pepper, adding more lime juice to taste.
Divide the laksa between the bowls and garnish with the remaining red chilli, along with any other toppings of your choice. Popular laksa toppings include hot mint (a.k.a ‘laksa leaves), fudgy half-boiled eggs, sliced spring onion or cucumber and red chilli.
The laksa lowdown: FAQs
Where does prawn laksa come from?
Laksa – including prawn laksa, chicken laksa and lesser known variations – is thought to have originated in maritime south east Asia, namely Malaysia and Singapore. However, the dish is also incredibly popular throughout Indonesia and Thailand.
What is laksa paste made of?
When making a laksa, you’ll need to use laksa paste. While it’s entirely possibly to make this from scratch using lemongrass, dried chillies, shallots, galangal, turmeric, spices, dried shrimp and shrimp paste, many people prefer the convenience of buying a pre-made paste.
Apparently, the laksa paste is the foundation of a good laksa. If you can’t get hold of any, you could also use Thai curry paste. Yellow curry paste seems to be a popular choice and that’s what this particular recipe calls for. I used Mae Ploy Yellow Thai Curry Paste to make my prawn laksa. I couldn’t find it in the supermarket but I managed to pick up a 400g tub on Amazon for around £5. Click here to buy the exact same curry paste that I used.
Does laksa contain sugar?
Most of the laksa pastes or curry pastes used to make prawn laksa – and other variations of the dish – will contain Chinese rock sugar. However, some recipes call for the addition of light brown sugar.
How long does laksa stay fresh for?
Homemade laksa broth should keep fresh in the fridge for up to four days, although if you’ve made a prawn laksa, I would advise eating the cooked prawns within 24 hours. However, the broth can be kept for a few more days or made in advance of cooking and, if placed in an airtight container, it’ll stay fresh in the freezer for around three months.
Cheat’s Prawn Laksa Recipe
All it takes is five minutes of prep and five minutes of cooking time and you’ll have a creamy, fragrant prawn laksa sitting on the table, waiting to be slurped up!
Prawns and noodles go so well together, don’t they? The king prawn linguine I recreated for HelloFresh last year has been tremendously popular and I’m sure this prawn laksa recipe will go down just as well. Check out other popular recipes over on the HelloFresh website.
10-Minute Prawn Laksa
Equipment
- Zester
Ingredients
- 200g g bok choy or pak choi § trimmed and roughly chopped into 2cm chunks
- ½ lime zested and juiced
- 200 ml coconut milk
- 150 g pre-cooked or dried ramen, egg or rice noodles
- 50 g mange tout
- ½ red chilli halved, deseeded and finely chopped
- 2 tbsp yellow curry paste
- 1½ tbsp peanut butter
- 180 g king prawns
- 1½ tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp light muscovado sugar
- 500 ml boiling water or chicken stock, if you prefer
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat, add the yellow curry paste and cook, stirring throughout, for one minute.
- Add the coconut milk, boiling water (or chicken stock), peanut butter, half the red chilli and a pinch of sugar. Bring to a simmer.
- Add the noodles, stir to combine and cook for one minute
- Add the prawns, mange tout and pak choi, stir well and cook until the prawns are cooked and the noodles are tender, for 3-4 minutes or so.
- Once the prawns and noodles are cooked, stir through the lime zest and soy sauce along with a generous squeeze of lime juice.
- Taste and season your prawn laksa with pepper and more lime juice if you like. Divide the laksa between two bowls and top with any remaining chilli, along with your favourite toppings.
Notes
- You’ll know when the the prawns are cooked because they’ll be pink on the outside and opaque on the inside.
- In terms of noodles, feel free to use pre-cooked ramen or egg noodles or dry egg noodle nests. I used precooked ramen noodles.
- During cooking, the noodles might absorb some of the coconut broth. If the sauce becomes too thick or sticky, simply add a splash of water to get it back to the soupy consistency we’re aiming for.
- Popular laksa toppings include fresh lime wedges, toasted sesame seeds, hot mint (a.k.a ‘laksa leaves’) or fresh coriander, half-boiled Ajitama eggs, sliced spring onions and sliced cucumber.
- Serve your prawn laksa with classic chopsticks and a traditional Chinese soup spoon for slurping!
Nutrition
About HelloFresh
Celebrating its 10th birthday next year, the HelloFresh subscription service enables you to have fresh meals delivered to your door on a weekly basis. Each recipe box contains everything you need to prepare your own freshly cooked dishes at home, including shopping lists and easy-to-follow instructions. The only ingredients you’ll need to provide yourself are cooking oil, salt and pepper, alongside any necessary cookery equipment.
Decide how many recipes you’d like to have delivered each week and how many servings you’d like each recipe to cater for, then wait for your delivery to arrive at your door. You can even tailor your box to suit personal preferences or to suit dietary requirements or food allergies. If you like, you can even specify exactly which dishes you’d like your box to include.
What’s your favourite way to eat noodles? Have you tried classic Malaysian prawn laksa (or perhaps chicken laksa) before? Comment below to share your thoughts.
WAIT! Before you leave, pin this post using one of the images below so you can come back to it again when you’re ready to cook your prawn laksa.
This post is sponsored by HelloFresh. This post also contains affiliate links and if you make a purchase using one of these links, I'll receive a modest commission fee at no extra cost to you.
Such a tempting Bowl of flavors. I love every combination to this delicious Bowl, Perfect Happy Meal too.
It was really good, my housemate ate the other bowl and he loved it too! 😀
This recipe is delicious! The combination of prawn, slightly undercooked boiled egg, ramen, and the curry coconut broth- wow. I also like that it can be customizable. Definitely a keeper!
Yay, glad you think so <3 I love the combination of flavours too and choosing different topics can be fun!
I love laksa, and this is perfect for this rainy weather we have been having!
Thank you, glad you like the look of this and I agree, it’s ideal comfort food for this weather.
Looks absolutely delicious and reminds me of a prawn dish that me and my friend recently ate at Waga Mamas.
Oh lovely. Wagamamas is one of few chains I do enjoy visiting.
I must say that I have never heard anything about laksa before but your post got me interested. Such a sophisticated delicious prawn dish and so easy and quick to make? Wow. Thank you for the recipe!
Oh wow, I have seen it on a few restaurant menus before even in the UK, although I do question how authentic it was. Glad you like my recipe 😀
This looks incredible – so flavourful and delicious. I love that it is so tasty and easy and only takes ten minutes.
Thanks, glad you like the look of it 😀 It was lovely!
Wow! These look so good! I love all the flavors you have going on! Cannot wait to try this!
Thanks Kevin, so glad to hear you like this recipe! 😀
All the flavors and those prawns! And the noodles! Yesssss please!
Hehe, the prawns really made this dish the the broth was exceptionally good.
Hello Fresh have really hit the nail on the head here by recreating a 10 minute cheat recipe for a dish that usually takes a long time to prepare. The presentation is stunning!
Totally agree; from what I’ve read, authentic laksa takes a long time to prepare. I bet it tastes noticeably different too but you can’t go wrong here with such a quick recipe.
As a born and bred Malaysian, this is incredibly upsetting. Another case of a caucasian person mashing up so many different elements of Asian cuisines and treating Asian countries as one. There is no such thing as soft boiled eggs or peanut butter in laksa. Please do more research into the different kinds of laksa there are in Malaysia and in fact even Singapore. And note if you ever visit Malaysia again, Sabah is not popular for laksa, try dishes like Mee Tuaran.
Ooo now this looks absolutely delicious! We love prawns and Scott would definitely love to try this out one weekend
Good to hear it 🙂 It’s so simple and so quick to do too. Bet you’ll love it.