What exciting things can I do with couscous?

Joannaclaire

In summer I make cous cous salads for BBQs, although it would work fine with other meals too. Add a chopped red onion, chopped corriander or basil (whatever takes your fancy), browned pine nuts, sundried tomatoes and slices black olives and a little bit of olive oil or italian dressing at voila!

Or I sometimes do a sweet one by adding cinnamon, chopped dates and sultanas. This works well with Morrocan type meat dishes.

Basically just experiment by adding ingredients you like and you can't go too far wrong.

debbym

You can use couscous with your favourite rice or pasta recipes. We love it with oven roasted veggies and roast chicken or BBQ stuff in the summer. BTW don't use a spoon to stir it or serve it as this can make it soggy and stick together! Here is how we flavour ours:
butter
roasted garlic (do same time as the veggies)
pesto
harissa paste
Olive oil and pine nuts
horseradish
Lemon juice
Sundried tomato paste (not chopped sundried toms - too rubbery) with or withour tabasco
salad dressing (left over of course)
We even have ours with curry since DS won't eat rice!

SUN_ANGEL

I have used Cous Cous in a salad. I used fruit juice and water heated and poured over the cous cous to cook - then cooled and then mixed mayonnaise, lemon juice, walnuts, sultanas, apple, peaches and mango. I used it like a Florida salad and the cous cous made the fruit go further as I was feeding 6 people. I cannot tell you the exact ingredients, I just kept adding bits until I liked the taste of it - and yes I did use a clean spoon between tastes. The main meat was steak that we cooked on a Raclette and served with potato wedges. Makes my mouth water to think of it!!

SammyD_2

Our favourite cous cous recipe (eaten weekly at our house) is cous cous with spicy roasted vegetables - cut up carrots, peppers, red onion, courgette and anything else you might have lying round (ideal for less than premium vegetables from the back of the fridge). Mix up 2 Tbl olive oil, 1 T lemon juice, 1T soy sauce, some minced garlic, 1 and a half t cumin and coriander, half t sugar, a pinch of chilli powder and a pinch of ground cloves if you have any. Pour over the vegetables and then roast in the oven.

Then use 1 cup of cous cous, pour 1 cup of boiling water over it, and fluff it up (you can also just add a bit more water and bung it in the microwave for 30 seconds if you are not convinced it is soft). Then put in a can of chick peas, add the roasted vegetables on top and add some fresh parsley and black pepper if you have any. Really divine, easy to stretch to make it feed more people as well.

I use plain cous cous and then use a teaspoon of veggie stock in the boiling water.

apple_mint

I always have a bowl of made up couscous in the fridge for DD to raid when she has the munchies (coucous soaked in veg stock with corriander and fluffed up).

The other night I dry fried some cummin seeds added some water to the pan and tumeric - stirred it around. Added some ready soaked couscous, chopped peppers, chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and a chopped onion. Stirred around until heated through. Kept adding a little water if it got a little dry. It was delicious and I served it with sausages.

halloweenqueen_2

Well I gave it a go, just plain to go with the meal and put some olive oil in it. It was really nice, the kids loved it, Mr HQ looked as if I was trying to poison him, it didn't look like a potato to him, so probably was a trick food!! However he did eat it, so i'm going to try a lot more of the suggestions on here! It was so easy to 'cook'!

skintchick

Isn't it so easy? When I worked in an office, I used to take it for lunch, make it up there and have a lovely hot meal!

Lucie_2

Another vote for cous cous as a salad, like rice/pasta salad
Rehydrate with water, then loosen it up with a good glug of olive oil, season with garlic, tabasco & black pepper. I then add griddled/roast veggies - red/spring onion, courgette, asparagus, mushroom, baby corn, tomatoes, peppers of any colour or whatever takes your fancy. A tin of chick peas thrown in is quite nice (& makes it go further).

MrsB_2

I got a recipe from a Good Food mag a few years ago that I ALWAYS get asked to make for parties / bbq's etc.

Basically you rehydrate the cous cous in veg stock as normal, when cooked add a good glug of olive oil, and then a generous amount of pesto (we like quite a lot). Add to the mix enough halved cherry tomatoes, sliced spring onions, and finely chopped mushrooms to give a good mix of all flavours. Then add some toasted pine nuts and chopped bazil. Give it a good mix and voila. It's even better the day after you make it.

Edit: forgot to say you need to mix the oil and pesto well into the cous cous BEFORE you add the other ingredients.

Wirenth

Our favourite recipe for this:

bash some chicken breasts till they are flat, sprinkle with paprika and pan fry.

Cube equal amounts of tomato, cucumber. Add a handful of corriander. For the cous cous dressing, crush a garlic clove, juice of half a lemon, some olive oil and paprika. Toss all of this with your freshly made cous cous (made using skintchick's method).

Serve. Remember to use mouthwash afterwards!