Sweet and Sour Prawns

Name: Sweet and Sour Prawns
Prep time: 3 min
Cook time: 7 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 1 red bell pepper, (diced); 1 yellow bell pepper, (diced); 1 small onion, (diced); 200 g cooked king prawns ((jumbo shrimp)); 200 g pineapple chunks in natural juices; 2 servings homemade sweet and sour sauce

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Sweet and Sour Prawns is a classic dish to order from a Chinese takeaway. However, we make our own healthier version that includes fresh prawns, crunchy vegetables, sweet pineapple and all tossed in an easy homemade sweet and sour sauce. A really quick and easy takeaway alternative that will save you calories and money.

Two plates of sweet and sour prawns next to a blue towel and chopsticks.

Don't you just love being able to create your own restaurant quality dishes at home? We do! Not only does it save us some money (and the hassle of having to leave the house), but we can make it healthier too. This homemade sweet and sour sauce couldn't be easier, and you can pack the dish with vegetables too.

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Why should you try it?
Step by step
Healthy takeaway alternatives
Homemade sauce
What to serve this with
FAQs
Extra Tips
More healthy takeaway recipes
Recipe
Feedback

Why should you try it?

Ready in under 10 minutes
An easy one pot dish
Only 220 calories per portion
A healthier alternative to takeaway
Easily adaptable and could be made with chicken

Step by step

One: Add the oil to a pan and once hot, add the onion and pepper and gently cook for 3-4 minutes until softened.

A large silver pan with chopped onion and red and yellow peppers cooking in it.

Two: Add the prawns, pineapple and homemade sweet and sour sauce and cook for a further 3 minutes.

A large silver pan with chopped vegetables, prawns and sauce cooking in it.

Three: Serve with rice.

A plate of Sweet and Sour Prawns on a bed of rice with chopsticks next to it.

Healthy takeaway alternatives

If you have picked yourself up a copy of my book, Hungry Healthy Happy^(aff), then you might recognise this recipe, as it is in there along with lots of other healthy takeaway alternatives. I have had so much great feedback from that recipe that I thought I would share it here too, as I know it's going to be popular.

But here we are sharing an amazing takeaway style sweet and sour sauce recipe with it.

If you haven't got a copy of my book yet, then what are you waiting for? It's available on Amazon^(aff) and in all good book stores.

Sweet and sour shrimp topped with cilantro leaves on a bed of rice.

Homemade sauce

If you are going to go to the effort of making your own copycat takeaway favourite, then you might as well make the sauce yourself too. I mean, you could just buy ajar of sweet and sour sauce, but that wouldn't really warrant a recipe.

It really is worth making your own sauce, as you can totally taste the difference. Just a few store cupboard essentials go in to making this - passata, honey, apple cider vinegar, cornflour and water and ready in just 5 minutes. Check out our Easy Sweet and Sour Sauce recipe.

A lot of sweet and sour sauce recipes use ketchup, but we find that is too sweet and ketchup comes with loads of other added ingredients too. So we used passata and a little bit of honey. It's a little bit sweet, but you can add more or less honey depending on how sweet you like it.

A small jar of sweet and sour sauce with a spoon sticking out of it.

What to serve this with

Rice is always a classic side dish when it comes to sweet and sour prawns. However, why not mix it up a bit and try our Healthy Egg Fried Rice.

Prawns (shrimp) in a sauce on top of rice next to a small jar of sauce.

FAQs

Do I have to use prawns?

No, not at all. Once you have the veggie base and your homemade sauce you can adapt it to suit your tastes. You could swap the prawns for chicken, extra vegetables or even tofu.

Can I reheat cooked prawns?

I wouldn't recommend reheating this, as we used cooked prawns in this dish, which are heated through again. So, to reheat the whole dish would mean reheating them again. With prawn we always like to be cautious, so I wouldn't recommend it. This dish takes just 10 minutes to make though, so it's quick enough to make from fresh.

Extra Tips

Feel free to use any veg you have that needs using. Chunky vegetables like courgette and aubergine would work well, although not very traditional.
If you don't like prawns, you could make this with just extra vegetables, chicken or even tofu.
We wouldn't recommend reheating this dish.

More healthy takeaway recipes

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