Rice salad with prawns, avocado and cucumber

Every once in while, after a long day out, I come home hungry and there's only time and energy for something easy, something simple, something sleazy, something inching past the edge of the reserve. Now through lines of the cheap venetian blinds... I might have digressed into an OK Go song. Back to the food. I didn't mean something sleazy, of course. And nothing to do with venetian blinds, either. But something easy and simple that doesn't take hours to prepare. For example this nice, spring-summery rice salad.

Rice salad with prawns, avocado and cucumber

(Adapted from Il Diario Gastronomico)

200 g rice (I used white because I had nothing else. A mix of brown, red, and wild rice would be even better)

400 g prawns, defrosted or fresh

1 chili

2 cloves of garlic

1 avocado

Half a medium cucumber

Juice from two limes

Some fresh coriander leaves

Cook the rice in some fresh water for about 20 minutes, then drain and put aside.

Deseed and halve the chili, quarter the garlic, wash the prawns. Fill a medium saucepan with water, add salt, then bring to the boil. When boiling, add the chili, the garlic, and the prawns. Reduce the heat and cook until the prawns are bright red, then drain and remove the chili and garlic.

Meanwhile, chop the cucumber and the avocado, and mince the coriander leaves.

Combine rice, prawns, cucumber, and avocado in a large bowl, sprinkle the coriander on top and dress with the lime juice. I drizzled a bit of maple syrup on top, too, but, as I already mentioned, I pour that stuff onto practically everything, and it might not be everyone's cup of tea... Some sweet chili sauce works very well, too.