Moroccan couscous with roasted veg & chick peas

A classic Middle Eastern dish that's easily turned into a main meal or a salad.

Couscous

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 1 Red pepper
  • 1 Yellow pepper
  • 2 Carrots
  • 2 Courgettes
  • 2 Medium red onions
  • 4 tbsp Olive oil
  • Juice and zest from 1/2 a lemon
  • 1 tsp Ground cumin
  • 1 tsp Ground tumeric
  • 1 tsp Ground coriander
  • 1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
  • 1 Clove of garlic, crushed
  • 200g / 7 oz (1/2 a tin) Chick peas
  • 250g / 8 3/4 oz Couscous
  • 100g / 3.5 oz Flaked almonds
  • 50g / 2.25 oz Dried apricot
  • 450 ml / 15 3/4 fl oz Vegetable stock
  • 4 tbsp Fresh coriander, chopped

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 220C.
  2. Chop the veg into small (about 2cm) cubes. Put them in a roasting tin with 1 tbsp olive oil, and put in the oven. They'll take around an hour to roast.
  3. Toast the almonds under the grill until they just start to turn brown.
  4. Mix the remianing 3 tbsp olive oil, ground coriander, cumin, cinnamon, garlic and lemon juice together thorougly.
  5. Mix the tumeric and couscous, then pour the stock over it. Leave covered for 5 minutes.
  6. Give the couscous a stir, then pour in the mix made in step 4 and stir well.
  7. Add the roasted veg, apricots, fresh coriander, lemon zest and chick peas into the mix. Stir well and serve.

Make it a main or a salad

  • Turn this small meal into a main meal by adding warmed falafel, houmous and warmed pitta bread.
  • This meal also works really well as a cold salad. Just leave it all until it goes cold and give it a good stir to make sure the couscous isn't all sticking together.

Variations

  • Other veg that work well with this dish are roasted butternut squash and steamed asparagus.

Also see

  • The salad version of this meal goes well with a BBQ.