Georgina Hayden’s quick and easy recipe for prawn and feta saganaki salad | Quick and easy

This summery dish takes the spicy seafood and cheese of a meze favourite and works them into a filling, tomato-rich salad

If you have spent any time in Greece, chances are you’ll have tried prawn saganaki. It’s a much-loved dish, especially across the islands in summer. Featuring juicy king prawns that are pan-roasted with tomato and a little chilli, then finished with feta, it’s something of an anomaly where the marriage of seafood and cheese are undisputed. I adore these as part of a meze, with fresh bread to mop up the sweet, spicy and feta-laced juices. However, here I’ve taken the key flavours of prawn saganaki and turned them into something a little more robust: a panzanella-style salad.

Prawn and feta saganaki salad

This is a real celebration of tomatoes. Topped with charred, garlicky prawns and finished with feta, it is summer in a bowl.

Prep 15 min
Cook 20 min
Serves 4

2 shallots, peeled and finely sliced
2 tbsp red-wine vinegar
Sea salt and black pepper
600g tomatoes, roughly chopped (cherry tomatoes halved, larger ones cut into similar sized pieces)
80g baby spinach, roughly chopped
75g stale ciabatta
Olive oil
400g raw king prawns, peeled and veins removed
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1½ tsp dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely grated
200g feta

Put the sliced shallots in a large bowl with the vinegar and a generous pinch each of salt and pepper. Give it a stir and leave to steep for 10 minutes.

Toss the tomatoes and spinach through the lightly pickled onions, then tear in the stale bread, in bite-sized pieces. Pour in four tablespoons of olive oil, give everything a good mix, then put to one side while you get on with the prawns.

Put the prawns in a small bowl and stir in the paprika, a teaspoon of the oregano and the grated garlic. Pour in a drizzle of olive oil, season and give it all a good stir. Place a frying pan big enough to hold all the prawns in one layer on a medium heat and add three tablespoons of olive oil. Add the prawns, scraping everything from the bowl into the pan, and fry for about three to four minutes without touching them, until they start to turn pink and golden around the edges. Flip them over and fry for a minute or two more until perfectly cooked.

When the prawns are ready, spoon them over the top of the salad along with any oil in the pan. Finish by crumbling over the feta and sprinkling with the remaining dried oregano. Serve straight away.