A Rockin’ Moroccan Couscous

Couscous has become all the rage in my kitchen.  Why?  For starters, once those tiny, spherical pellets hit boiling water, it’s only a 5 minute countdown ‘til finish.  Made from the same semolina flour used to make spaghetti, couscous is an excellent source of fiber and vitamins.  Nutrition and cook time aside, I love couscous because it is malleable to my mealtime musings.  A dish laden with ethnic spices and cooked vegetables, the quintessential Moroccan-style couscous, is as easy as the Greek Salad couscous with fresh tomatoes, Kalamata olives, cucumber, and feta cheese.  I even eat them “barebones”, with a little help from my friends: olive oil, salt, and pepper.   It’s simply a matter of your mood and what you have in your pantry.   

Feeling that I had been under utilizing my spice arsenal recently, I opted for Moroccan Couscous.  While you may view the amount of spices as daunting, it is multi-purpose.  While cooking, I discovered a novel method of air freshening: toasting spices.  Cook and clean at the same time.  That is consummate college cooking.  After only a few seconds, the stale kitchen air was shrouded with a veil of aromatic spices. 

Though I went meatless on this version of Moroccan Couscous, you will not leave the table hungry.  Garbanzo beans, or chickpeas, are the muscle-building protein for this meal.  Beans get a bad rap for being a “poor man’s meat”.  But at $1 a can, the “poor college student” sees opportunity.  Chick peas have been cultivated for over 7,500 years.  Their track record among humans is solid.  Plus, they have a great nutty taste, are low-fat and high protein.  Why give up on a good thing?  

Your first bite brings on this epiphany that what you are eating is the perfect blend of fragrant herbs and spices, couscous, chickpeas, vegetables, raisins, and orange juice all at once.  Then you realize that Moroccan Couscous is a lot easier to say, especially when your mouth is full.  Enjoy the noms!

Moroccan Couscous

Ingredients:

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp freshly grated ginger

½ tsp ground cayenne pepper

¼ tsp ground coriander

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground allspice

2 T olive oil

1 red onion, finely diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 zucchini, diced

½ cup raisins

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 T grated lemon zest

1 (14.5 oz) can low sodium garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1 ½ cups vegetable broth

½ cup orange juice

1 ½ cups couscous

3 T fresh mint, chopped

Instructions:

1.       Heat a large, heavy bottomed pan (I used my 13 inch All-Clad) over medium heat. 

2.       Stir in spices; gently toast until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.

3.       Stir in oil, onion, and garlic until softened.   

 4.       Stir in bell pepper and zucchini; cook for 5 minutes. 

 5.       Stir in the raisins, salt, black pepper, lemon zest, and garbanzos.

6.       Pour in chicken broth and orange juice; turn heat to high and bring to a boil. 

 7.       When mixture is boiling, stir in the couscous and remove from heat; cover, and let stand 5 minutes. 

8.       Fluff with a fork, and fold in chopped mint. 

Don’t Make a Burger Blunder! Cook It All at Once

It’s midterm week and I signed up for four shifts of work this week…all in a row. Monday, I had 10 minutes between class and work. What resulted? Peanut butter and jelly toast and a glass of milk, an apple in tote as I hauled it to work; so my apologies for not keeping up with the blog. In all honesty, I haven’t been making anything of real merit anyway. Until today!

Tuesday, an unloved weekday for most, allows me the greater afternoon to prepare foodstuffs. I had about a half pound of ground beef in the fridge, and knowing that this week would be a scramble for finding time for food, I decided to cook all of it at once and then refrigerate it. When I need it I just throw it into a frying pan with a few teaspoons of water and vwahlah! Instant beef! Okay, so it’s not actually miracle grow ground beef, but as long as you use it within the week it should stay fresh enough to add to rice, pasta, couscous or potatoes.

So today, I wanted to see how it worked out with some couscous and boiled carrots. And it worked out quite well. With the added tart of lemon juice and saltiness of seasonings, it was one heap of tastytasty. It’s a pretty straight forward dish and you could easily add frozen peas, broccoli, chicken etc to this dish to switch it up. Play with the spices, make it your own. It’s a quick and easy meal though, and that’s why I liked it.

Couscous with Ground Beef and Carrots

Ingredients:

A little more than ½ c homemade chicken broth

½ c couscous

1 T butter

Salt and pepper

1 t lemon juice

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

2 t lemon juice

Dash of salt

1 c ground beef

½ onion, finely chopped

½ clove garlic, minced

½ t garlic powder

Instructions:

1. In a large frying pan, cook ground beef over medium heat until no longer pink, drain off grease. Remove beef and place on paper towel to soak up any extra fat. Sprinkle with salt and garlic powder.

2. Add in onions and garlic to the frying pan, cook until onions are translucent. Add beef back in, heat until warm.

3. Boil chicken broth in small saucepan for about 5 min [re-measure at the end of boiling, if not enough for ½ c, add water]. Cook couscous according to package instructions.

4. In another saucepan, boil water over high heat. Put carrot slices in, boil for about 5 min until tender; remove from heat.

5. Add lemon juice and salt to carrots.

6. Add butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper to couscous.

7. Mix all ingredients together, serve.

Makes one large serving. NOMS: 8

65 oz of Canned Artichokes: What to Do?

The beauty of buying a 65 oz. can of artichoke from Costco is that you discover that, like garlic or onions, everything needs a little artichoke. A lesson for buying in bulk, expect to use your product a lot. It’s not a problem since I love to include artichokes, but I will say that lately I’ve been getting a bit more creative with them. This meal had an interesting Middle Eastern/Southern Asia flavor to it, with the coriander and ginger, and blended nicely with lime flavor and then balanced out with the help of my couscous.

A few things I would do next time however:

· Try adding in some raisins; soak them in lime juice perhaps?

· Add some turmeric, a good complimentary spice to the dish

· Cook the couscous in chicken broth not water to achieve a fuller flavor

Overall, this dish was a light, but sustaining meal. I did not find myself hungry later on, an added benefit, though I didn’t feel stuffed to the brim after I ate. The artichokes were great in it, and now I guess I have about 60 oz. left…hahaha, maybe it was more than I could actually eat. But we will see.

Chicken, Artichoke and Couscous

Ingredients:

Meat from 1 chicken leg and 1 chicken thigh

¼ c onion, diced

¼ c green pepper, diced

2 T olive oil

2 T lime juice

½ t ground cinnamon

¼ t ground coriander

¼ t fresh ginger, grated

Salt and pepper

½ c cooked couscous

Instructions:

1. Cut up chicken into small, bite size pieces.

2. Combine all ingredients, except couscous, in small bowl. Add chicken. Let marinade for 30 min.

3. In large skillet, cook chicken mixture for about 6-8 min.

4. Meanwhile, prepare couscous.

5. Combine chicken mixture with couscous, eat!

Makes about 1-2 servings. NOMS: 7