Couscous tabbouleh

  A tasty and flavourful substitute for rice or potatoes, or a salad component! 

This is traditionally cooked with bulgur wheat, but I like to make it with couscous!

                                                                                

Ingredients

1 cup couscous

1.5 cups vegetable stock

a bunch of parsley

1/2 red onion

1 tomato

1/4 cucumber

turmeric powder

cinnamon powder

cumin powder

salt, pepper

lemon

extra virgin olive oil

Extras 

a bunch of mint leaves

spring onion stalks 

1. Wash the tomato, cucumber (and spring onion if you are using) and peel the onion. Dice the onion, tomato and cucumber into very fine pieces.

2. Sauté the diced onions in a frying pan with olive oil until they become soft. I then grind them in a pestle & mortar along with the parsley and some olive oil (also mint if you are using). But this is just an additional step I tried, you can simply use raw diced onions if you prefer, and chop the parsley very fine.

3. Measure out 1 cup of couscous. Please see specific instructions of your particular brand, but I use a ratio of 1 cup couscous to 1.5 cups vegetable stock. Prepare the vegetable stock by adding the right quantity of hot water and stock together. Use 1.5 cups of this volume. 

4.Pour the vegetable stock into a small saucepan and heat (I add a few extra drops as water will be lost to evaporation). Add a  tiny amount of turmeric, cinnamon and cumin powders (or sprinkle a bit of each). I haven't added a lot of salt as the stock should already be quite salty. When the stock starts to boil, add the couscous, stir gently to ensure that all the couscous is covered and spices are  mixed. Cover with lid and remove from heat, leaving it to stand for 5-10 minutes.

a little bit of each spice

5. Use a fork to puff up the cooked couscous and combine it in a bowl along with the diced tomato, cucumber, onion and parsley. Mix well and add salt & pepper.

6. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle some lemon juice when ready to eat.