Add a Little Interest With Persian Couscous

Submitted by Karen Elizabeth

"Couscous is a busy cooks dream come true--- invaluable for anyone who wants good food on the table fast! My youngest daughter loves to prepare herself a small bowl of couscous when she comes home from school. This recipe, colourful and tasty, with interesting textures, makes a good side or even a main dish. From The Very Easy Vegetarian Cookbook by Alison & Simon Holst"

 

• Ready In: 18mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 3

ingredients

• 236.59 ml couscous
• 9.85 ml vegetable stock powder
• 2.46 ml sugar
• 1 grated an orange, rind of (optional)
• 473.18 ml boiling water
• 59.14-118.29 ml chopped almonds or 59.14-118.29 ml pine nuts
• 59.14-118.29 ml currants
• 29.58 ml butter or 29.58 ml olive oil
• 59.14-118.29 ml dried apricot, chopped
• 2 spring onions
• 59.14 ml chopped coriander leaves

directions

1. Stir the couscous, stock powder, sugar and grated orange rind, together in a bowl.
2. Add the boiling water, cover, and leave to stand for 6 minutes.
3. Heat the nuts and currants in the butter or oil in a small frying pan, until the nuts brown lightly, and the currants puff up.
4. Add the chopped apricots.
5. Stir the hot nuts and fruit through the couscous.
6. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature, adding the finely chopped spring onions and coriander just before serving.

Reviews

[littlemafia]

Very different couscous but yet so delicious. Made it with olive oil and without pine nuts; I didn't have any. I really liked the fruity taste, the sweetness of the apricots combined with the sourness of the currants and strong flavor of orange.Till now I only had Taboulleh, so this is a nice change.

 

[JustJanS]

Excellent thanks Karen. i used the orange zest, toasted pine nuts and chicken stock powder. I always use cranberries rather than currants (a personal preferance) and especially love them in couscous.

 

[Eric Hans B.]

Just made this receipe today. Fabulous! I must say it’s also very forgiving of substitutions since I lacked a few ingredients so I used: raisans for currants; Leeks for spring onions; Lemon peel instead of orange peel. Flat leaf parsley for cilantro. Pearl couscous for regular couscous. Plus Instead of 2 cups of boiling water, I used 1 3/4 cup boiling water and 1/4 cup of rose water. Great dish!!

 

[Annacia]

Yummy, yummy! I made this last evening to go along with some Chermoula meatballs. Each part of the meal benefited from the other. One fruity and light, the other spicy and rich. Couscous is marvelous because it can be made with so many flavors and moods. This one would so easy to enjoy as a summer lunch as well as a side. I made it by the recipe and loved each bite.

 

[I'mPat]

Delicious and I wish I had an orange to have put the zest in as I think it would have made it even better. The only thing I didn't add was coriander and I had a large serving left over. We had it with JustJanS's recipe #216706. Thank you Karen Elizabeth, made for Make My Recipe Edition 15.