veggie couscous

Well, I've been busy as all hell lately and haven't posted in a while. Here's a quick couscous recipe I whipped up tonight - and hopefully I'll post a few more recipes over the next few days.

What you need;
1 cup couscous
1 veggie stock cube
Tinned brown lentils
All purpose seasoning
Cumin
Tinned beetroot
Zucchini
Asparagus
Green beans
Carrot
Mushroom
Corn
Onion
Garlic

What you do;

1) Cook the garlic and onion in oil. When browned, add the chopped carrot and green beans, then 5 minutes later add the chopped mushrooms, asparagus and zucchini.

2) While this is cooking, bring a cup of water to the boil with the stock cube and a bit of oil. When it's boiled, add the couscous, take it off the heat and set aside with the lid on for 3 or 4 minutes. When it's absorbed the liquid, fluff it with a fork to separate the grains.

3) Rinse the tinned lentils and add those and the corn to the veggie mix to heat through. Take the mix off the heat and let cool a little. When it's not so hot, add the cooled couscous to the veggie mix and add spice to flavour.

4) As a final thing - and bearing in mind that this is a quick slap-stick recipe - I chopped up some tinned baby beets and put them on top. It added that final yum factor and went well with the subtle flavours.

It's quick, yum, filling and is a well balanced meal. It keeps well for two days worth of leftovers too - my work colleagues were very jealous last time I made this :)

You can use whatever veg you have in the fridge - last time I made a version of this it was the day before market day and I wanted to use up every last thing! You can play around with the spices too - these are just what i grabbed from the cupboard.

Trying new things - Pearl couscous

I was stalking the aisles of my local supermarket the other day and the beaming smile of Australia's original favourite French chef*,  Mr Gabriel Gate caught my eye on this Blu Gourmet Pearl Couscous. 

I cooked it using the recipe on the side of the box - genius, I know - onions, stock and parsley. And I served it with mushrooms (cooked using that amazing recipe from a few posts ago). It turned out to be a really filling and delicious meal. 

I'd been looking for pearl couscous for ages  after eating it at Maha's and couldn't find it - even in the market spice shops. How ironic that I found it in the local Coles with a celebrity chef on the pack!

Here's how the meal turned out. Yes, I waited a few seconds and took a pic before I shoved it in my gob. 

 

Have you noticed that seemingly everything in my kitchen is green?! I promise there are some other colours in there somewhere. Also, my friend Jodie gave me a really simple little recipe today to help me with my "I'm going to learn to love avocado" self-imposed challenge. I'll whip it up later in the week and post it asap.

Cheers, M 

* Before Manu