Finally September got here and a little nip was in the air – for about 38 seconds. It was enough to make all of us crave cold weather food, but in truth it’s still just too hot to eat it. My compromise last night was hearty roasted vegetables and beans, served over a beautiful couscous laced with almonds and cranberries. My guys devoured it and no one said, “Where’s the beef?” Couscous with Almonds, Cranberries, and Roasted Vegetables was as pretty as it was delicious and next time I’ll be making extra to have leftovers.
Actually, this is a remake of a recipe that my friend Emily and I used while teaching a class about cooking with pasta to a group of teenagers last summer. We were trying to demonstrate that not only is pasta fairly universal, but it also comes in lots of different shapes and sizes - over 600 to be exact - even tiny couscous. We featured many different countries including this great dish with has Moroccan-Northern African flavors. Really, it can have any flavors you like, using produce from your garden, grocery, or pantry. This time for the vegetables I used thick slices of zucchini and yellow squash, plus red onion and two small peppers. A can of drained and rinsed garbanzo beans added texture, flavor and protein to the dish. It would be so easy to vary the veggies, maybe eggplant or corn or tomatoes, black beans would work too. Now here’s the best news of all, the couscous takes about a minute to cook and rests for 10 minutes, which exactly how long it takes the vegetables to roast! If you line the roasting pan with foil you have about the easiest clean up ever! In less than 20 minutes including prep time dinner is ready. Of course you could include a bit of roasted chicken or sliced steak and count this as a heart side dish. But why bother when it’s so tasty. This pasta was the hands down favorite for all of the students last summer. I think you’ll know why when you taste it. Dinner is not just served, it’s beautiful, it’s healthy and it is so good that everyone will want seconds. Welcome Fall!
Couscous with Almonds, Cranberries, and Roasted Vegetables
Ingredients for Couscous
2 Tbsp butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1½ cups dry couscous
½ cup slivered almonds, toasted
¼ cup dried cranberries or raisins
Ingredients for roasted vegetables
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large red pepper, diced in one inch pieces
1 zucchini, sliced in rounds
1 onion, sliced
1 can chickpeas, drained and dried
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
Directions
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add garlic and sauté for one minute.
Add chicken stock, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
Take the pan off of the heat, add the dry couscous, stir, and cover for 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Line a roasting pan with foil for easy cleanup.
Coat foil lined pan with olive oil add vegetables and toss with oregano, salt and pepper.
Roast in the oven for 15 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring every 5 minutes.
(Hint: It’s ok to broil them for an extra minute to get everything really brown.)
To serve:
Stir almonds and raisins into couscous.
Place on a large serving platter and top with roasted vegetables.
Pasta Art
