Vegetarian Couscous Recipe

Lamb is not my favorite meat. So my husband made a wise choice and asked for a lamb dish for the Father's Day. His first choice was a roasted leg of lamb, the way I make it with garlic and rosemary in red wine bath, then he mused about couscous, another lamb dish. So I decided on making the roast lamb with vegetarian version of couscous as a garnish.

After posting a picture of my husband's plate on Facebook I received 2 request for a recipe. So I wrote it in detail. Of course, experienced cooks do not need that much details, but I hope my kids want make it some day.

Here goes my recipe, learned in Israel, seasonned with the tips from cooks that came from all over ME, tasted by my family and friends and matured almost 30 years.

Vegetarian Couscous Stew

Ingredients.

For stew:
( 4 servings as a main course and 6-8 servings as a sauce + side dish)

2 tbsp of oil for frying (I use canola)
1 medium onion diced
2 gloves of garlic, chopped, or 4-5 whole gloves, or 1/3 teaspoon of granulated garlic (see comments)
2 sticks of celery diced
1-2 fresh chili peppers, diced; or dried chili pepper, or black, acc. to taste
2-3 ripe tomatoes, diced (I also skin them), or half a can of canned tomatoes (see Comments)
2 carrots, diced
1 turnip, diced
1 parsnip, diced, optional
2 zucchini, diced
cup of diced pumpkin, or other sweet squash, optional
1 cup green beans cut to 1/2 pieces
2-3 cups of water
red pepper, diced or sliced (see Comments)
1/2 small cauliflower cut to small florets, optional
1 - 2 cups of precooked or canned garbanzo beans (chick peas) (see Comments)
1 tsp paprika
1tsp cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric, optional
2-3 bay leaves
a pinch or two nutmeg, optional
3 tbsp of chopped fresh parsley, or 1 tsp dried parsley
salt
1-2 tbsp butter, optional
1tb spoon fresh lemon juice, optional.

For couscous:
(4 servings)

1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup dry couscous
2 cup boiling water, or 1.5cup, if you like firmer couscous
1 flat tsp salt
a pinch of dried mint (optional)

Method.

For stew:

Preheat oil in a pot on low heat (don't overheat). Add onion and chopped garlic. When garlic starts turning golden add celery, tomato and chili peppers reduce heat cover and let the veges "sweat" for 10 mins stirring occasionally. Do not let the mixture in the pan fry, just simmer in the juices released by tomatoes.

Add carrots and turnip, increase heat to medium low and sauté veges together for 5 mins.

Add spices, except parsley, salt, add half of the water, bring to boil, reduce heat a leave to simmer for another 10 mins
.
Add parsnip, squashes and green beans (if using fresh ones) bring to boil, reduce heat and leave simmer for further 5-7 mins.

Add pepper, cauliflower and garbanzo beans, rest of water (see Comments), check seasoning, bring to boil and let simmer another 10 mins.

Add parsley, lemon juice and butter, if using, let it dissolve, stir it in and remove the stew from the heat.

For couscous.

Lightly preheat oil in thick bottom saucepan. Add couscous and mix with oil. Add boiled water and salt, mix reduce the heat to minimum, cover and simmer for 5 mins. Switch off the heat, fluff the couscous, cover again (I also cover with the towel) and let stand further 5 mins. Fluff again and serve.

Serving.
In large serving platter place couscous in a ring and pour stew in the middle.


Comments:

1. I use a thick cast aluminum pot, Dutch oven, for this dish, however any heavy bottom pot will do.

2. The list above is made in order the vegetables go into the pan. I usually pill and chop them in the same order, keeping an eye on the pot while the stew is cooking. It saves time and prevents the veges from overcooking and becoming too mushy.

3. My family and I think that fried onions and vegetables, especially tomatoes do not mix. So I only slightly sauté them until they become transparent and leave to 'sweat' on low heat. However, you can fry the onions and garlic to your heart desires, if you like them this way.

4. If you use whole garlic cloves add them somewhere mid way in the cooking. Add granulated garlic with garbanzo beans.

5. Optional ingredients are not the traditional ones. I picked them from different cooks, tried and left in what we like in our household.

6. Couscous stew is basically a thick soup. So when you add water, it's better to put less in the beginning and adjust quantity toward the end to consistency you like

7. Before I started writing this recipe, I checked some on the net. All of them have much more tomatoes in them. So if you like tomatoes, go ahead and use more. I don't like using too much tomato sauce with the vegetables generally, and one of the best couscous stews I ever ate was cooked without tomatoes at all, just with lemon juice, which, I suspect, is how it was done before tomatoes were brought in from America.

8. I like Trader Joe's whole wheat couscous. I cook it in 1 : 2 ratio. If you cook firm couscous, it will absorb more water from the stew anyway. So you have to have more liquids in your stew.

9. In my family we also like couscous stew with rice, burghul and pasta. With pasta the stew should be thicker, and more butter does not hart either.