Tuesday 27 August 2013

My favourite breakfast - prawns with fatty vegetables and salad

Prawns are breakfast food in our house. There is something about the non-conventionality of it that makes us both grin every time someone proposes it.

A protein breakfast has been a valuable tool for me in overcoming sugar addition. I always found that when I ate porridges and mueslis and fruits for breakfast all those years, it really left me down and out within a few hours and I was back on the hunt for more quick carbs. Even if I managed to resist the urge for sugary treats, I still always had the sense that my REAL nutritional needs (for good fats, phytochemicals, and protein) were yet to be addressed. And if I got busy during the day, I could easily end up missing out, not getting around to eating until I was really hypoglycemic and then just pouncing on the first fragrant hot food I came across.

In this meal, I feel like I am ahead of the game from the word go. It is only 7:30am and I have already had much of my protein requirement for the day, most of my carbohydrate in the form of 4-5 different coloured vegetables, and a nice amount of the kind of fat (medium chain triglycerides) that is used directly as metabolic fuel. I could pretty much just eat some nuts, some butter and an egg from this point on until I go to bed. That is damn handy on days when I am out teaching or in meetings or in a library and don't have access to my kitchen to cook a nutritious lunch.


In this version of the breakfast, I have king prawns, spices, coconut oil, baby asparagus, Tuscan cabbage, dulce seaweed flakes, garlic, rocket, and beetroot sauerkraut. The amounts are for 2 people.

It is very quick. I buy the prawns raw but shelled direct from a fish market (about 200g). I chuck them in pan on medium heat with 3 tablespoons of coconut oil and a generous amount of turmeric and black pepper, then reduce the heat after the first minute, let them sizzle for another 2-3 minutes while I get the vegetables out of the fridge. Then I turn the prawns over one by one (or as carefully as I could be bothered), and throw in the baby asparagus and the Tuscan cabbage. I will have crushed my garlic at least 15 minutes ago and now throw that in as well along with the dulce flakes.

I always buy my rocket organic - it keeps for several weeks in the fridge, compared to store bought stuff that only lasts a day or so before looking yellow and floury.

I didn't make this beetroot sauerkraut myself, but I do make such things sometimes. It is a nice way to get the sweet vegetables that are otherwise ill-advised on a low carbohydrate diet because the micro-organisms in the sauerkraut consume most of the sugars and leave you with a nice sour, tangy fibre-rich probiotic and prebiotic food that adds a splash of colour to the plate.

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