Steamed Prawns with Vegetable Mix

Steamed prawns with vegetable mix is quick, healthy and tasty meal. It is rich in protein and carbs with plenty of vitamins, minerals and healthy fats. Adding olive oil improves already great taste and also increase calories from fats.

prawns with veggies

Put vegetable mix in steam cooker.

My favorite mix are broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. Since I often eat on the run, I always have few bags of this and similar vegetables in my freezer.
prawns with veggies

Add frozen prawns - frozen cleaned prawns - on top of the vegetables.
prawns with veggies

To shorten preparation, defrost vegetables and prawns with hot water - 10-15s will be enough.

Now, add some salt, pepper and other spices you prefer. Some people like to add garlic before cooking/steaming, but this 'kills' garlic in the meal and most importantly, entire house 'smells' like garlic after steaming :o)

Mix everything and steamed it for 20 minutes.
prawns with veggies

Prawns are finished - and that is all regarding cooking.
prawns with veggies

Put the prawns and vegetables in a pot and serve warm.

Now you can add some garlic to the prawns. Adding a tablespoon of olive oil increases calories by 135 kcal per tablespoon (around 15g of oil per tablespoon), but it also gives nice flavor.

Calories in Prawns and Vegetable Mix

Food Amount Protein Carbs Fats Fibers
Prawns 250g 51g 2g 4g 0g
Vegetable mix 400g 9g 28g 2g 12g
Total: 60g 30g 6g 12g
Calories: 240 kcal 120 kcal 54 kcal -

This meal has around 415 kcal - mostly from protein, some from carbs and very little from fats.

If you add tablespoon of olive oil, then:

Food Amount Protein Carbs Fats Fibers
Prawns 250g 51g 2g 4g 0g
Vegetable mix 400g 9g 28g 2g 12g
Olive oil 15g 0g 0g 15g 0g
Total: 60g 30g 21g 12g
Calories: 240 kcal 120 kcal 189 kcal -

 If you add tablespoon of (olive) oil, calories are increased to 550 kcal, mostly from protein, some from fats and rest from complex carbs.

If you are ectomorph and you need calories, I would recommend adding rice or pasta to the meal, just to increase carb intake - in this case, don't add olive oil - mixing faster carbs and fats are not the best thing to do if you want to keep your body fat percentage (bf%) low. BTW, tablespoon of olive oil with some vegetables and rice here and there, will not add 10 kilos of fat to your frame!

Macronutrient content of this meal:

Food Amount Protein Carbs Fats Fibers
Prawns 250g 51g 2g 4g 0g
Vegetable mix 400g 9g 28g 2g 12g
Whole wheat pasta 100g 12g 65g 4g 14g
Total: 72g 95g 10g 26g
Calories: 288 kcal 380 kcal 90 kcal -

If these 760 kcal (mostly from carbs and protein, some from fats) are not enough in a single meal, then add a tablespoon of olive oil - it would be around 900 kcal in a single meal - without bread.

I am not saying that you SHOULD add all these - I prefer prawns and vegetables steamed with maybe few drops of olive oil and no additional carbs. I am endomorph, so carbs are big 'no, no' for me. But, ectomorphs having problems gaining weight/muscles should add carbs in the form of pasta and/or rice to their daily meals, but they should always try to mix complex carbohydrates (vegetables) with simpler carbohydrates (rice, pasta) - and to have protein in every meal.

Cholesterol in Prawns

Prawns tend to be high in cholesterol - it depends on prawn specie, but cholesterol levels are around 120-150 mg per 100g of prawn's meat. This amount is sum of both HDL (good) and LDL (bad) cholesterol. Since prawns have up to 0.5g of omega-3 per 100g of meat, I don't worry about cholesterol in prawns and foods that have similar ratio of cholesterol (both HDL and LDL) and omega-3.