Couscous with Vegetables Recipe: Quick Vegetarian Side Dish

Name: Couscous with Vegetables Recipe: Quick Vegetarian Side Dish
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Ingredients: Couscous 1 cup; Onion 1; Carrot 1; Bell pepper 1; Hot chili pepper 1-2; Zucchini 1; Tomatoes 3-4; Garlic 3 cloves; Chicken or vegetable stock 1 cup; Mixed fresh herbs 0.5 bunch; Vegetable oil 4 tbsp; Salt, lemon to taste

Couscous, the wheat grain, left the traditional Maghrebi and Berber kitchen long ago. Couscous with vegetables and other dishes made with this grain are common across the East. In almost any eatery you can get couscous with meat, chicken, or simply with roasted vegetables.

Handmade couscous is the best. It's made by rolling semolina in a little water as it absorbs it. This is a very labour-intensive process, traditionally women's work. The resulting granules are sifted, moistened again and rolled once more in semolina. As a rule, couscous granules are no more than 2 mm across. It's worth adding that you need durum wheat to make it.

Couscous's closest relative is bulgur. It's the same wheat, treated with hot water and dried. Bulgur makes an excellent Eastern vegetable salad, tabbouleh. Often, though, bulgur is simply swapped for couscous. In Turkey they cook whole bulgur grains into pilav — a kind of pilaf.

As a rule, couscous with meat is less common in coastal areas, where similar dishes with fish or vegetarian couscous with vegetables are more popular. There is even a wonderful sweet dish, masfouf: couscous with grapes, dried fruit, nuts and assorted seeds.

In the East, couscous is steamed, then seasoned with lemon juice and mint, or served together with meat, fish or vegetables. Elsewhere in the world the grain is most often simply covered with boiling water and left for a short while. Most producers suggest this method, as printed on the packaging.

By analogy with bulgur with vegetables, it's easy to make couscous with vegetables, changing and expanding the mix of vegetables to your taste. Since the grain cooks in just a few minutes, the whole process comes down to preparing fried or stewed vegetables, adding the couscous and stock, and letting the dish stand for a few minutes until the couscous is fully cooked.

More with zucchini

Vegetable StewSummer vegetable stew: young zucchini, roasted eggplant and peppers, new potatoes, onion and carrot simmered in fresh tomato purée. Vegetarian and easy.

Zarangollo. Fluffy Scrambled Eggs with Braised Zucchini and OnionZarangollo, rustic scrambled eggs from Murcia, Spain: zucchini and onion slowly fried in olive oil, then eggs stirred in until soft and creamy. Quick and easy.

Zucchini in Tomato SauceZucchini in tomato sauce: young zucchini stewed in a fresh tomato sauce with garlic and chili. A light vegetarian dish with no added fat, ready in 45 mins.

Baked Zucchini Pancakes with CheeseSoft zucchini pancakes with cheese and eggs, baked in the oven without oil. Make them thin or fluffy. A simple step-by-step recipe with photos.

Vegetable Ragout with PorkVegetable ragout with lean pork, young zucchini, carrot and ripe tomato sauce, slowly stewed until thick and fragrant. Step-by-step recipe with photos.

Ingredients

2 servings

Couscous 1 cup
Onion 1
Carrot 1
Bell pepper 1
Hot chili pepper 1-2
Zucchini 1
Tomatoes 3-4
Garlic 3 cloves
Chicken or vegetable stock 1 cup
Mixed fresh herbs 0.5 bunch
Vegetable oil 4 tbsp
Salt, lemon to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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Depending on the season, couscous with vegetables can vary a lot in the mix and amount of vegetables. In the simplest version, especially in winter, it's enough to add carrot, onion and fresh herbs. The dish can be made with meat or chicken stock, or be completely vegetarian, as you like.
Heat vegetable oil in a deep saucepan, olive oil is best. Peel the carrot and onion. Dice the carrot the size you'd cut vegetables for vinaigrette. Chop the onion quite finely. Fry the carrot and onion together in the hot oil over high heat for 4–5 mins.
Dice a small young zucchini. If the zucchini are very young, you needn't peel them. Peel more mature ones and remove the seeds if they have formed. Cut the zucchini into cubes about twice as big as for Olivier salad. By the way, it's best if the vegetables in your couscous are all cut about the same size.
Remove the seeds from the bell pepper and cut it into small slices, or cubes if the pepper is quite fleshy. Cut the hot pepper into rings and remove the seeds. The amount of hot pepper is up to you. Add the zucchini and peppers to the fried onion and carrot, stir, and fry all the vegetables for 6–7 mins, stirring often.
Peel the garlic and chop it coarsely with a knife. Add the garlic to the vegetables and salt to taste. Add 1 cup of stock: meat, chicken or vegetable. In the simplest case you can just add plain water. Bring the liquid to a boil and simmer the vegetables for 2–3 mins. That completes the vegetable part of the dish.
From here you have options. You can steam the couscous the way it's done in the East and serve it on a large platter with the vegetables on top, which is how couscous with chicken is served. But in a home kitchen, few people keep a steamer among their equipment. So here's a second option, which is much easier.
As soon as the stock with the vegetables comes to a boil, add the dry couscous and stir. Cover the saucepan with a lid, turn the heat down to the minimum and leave the couscous with vegetables for 4–5 mins. Then turn off the heat, stir the grain and vegetables once more and leave for another 4–5 mins. After this the couscous will absorb all the liquid and become fluffy, like rice with vegetables.
Pull the leaves off the herb sprigs (parsley, dill, cilantro) and throw away the stems. Chop the herbs finely with a knife and add them to the couscous with vegetables. If you like, sprinkle the dish with 1–2 tsp of lemon juice.
Stir the couscous with vegetables and spoon it onto plates or one large dish that's easy to serve at a family lunch. Cut small ripe tomatoes in half or into wedges and arrange them on top of the finished dish.
Serve couscous with vegetables as a side dish for meat dishes, goulash or braised fish. It also works well as a main dish for vegetarians.