Couscous

[MrsPear]

sorry to post here but I’m hoping for a range of answers. Ds had to make cous cous salad for cooking at school. Now I’m left with a load - can anyone suggest a cheap meal to serve with it?! Also ideas of what to add to the cous cous.

We don’t usually eat it - potatoes, pasta or rice here so a bit lost.

Oh and I’m allergic to peanuts and lentils but not nuts. No veggies but happy to eat veggie.

Veggie tagine? Most use a couple of dried spices, onions, tinned tomatoes and root or summer vegetables (aubergine etc).

Make a small amount of couscous - about half a cup, with water. Skin and chop 4 big tomatoes (deseed), a couple of spring onions, a bunch of parsley and a bunch of mint, mix all together with the juice of a lemon and quite a lot of olive oil - about 5 tbsp - and quite a lot of salt. Good side salad for meat or roasted veg or halloumi.

Roast some peppers, tomatoes, courgette, red onion, maybe aubergine, garlic, butternut squash etc. Some chilli flakes for a bit of a kick if you like.
Above also nice with cod fillets.

I prepare couscous with Marigold bouillon in the water, makes it taste seasoned.

I stir fry chopped onion, spring onion, red peppers, carrots, etc then add curry paste. When the cous cous is fluffed up, I add that too and mix it all up.

A tagine or a stew

I've assumed no veggies meant you're not veggie rather than you won't eat vegetables.

Cous cous is pasta by the way

Stuffed peppers or mushrooms with cous cous / spinach / cheese is always lovely

Tagine is traditionally served with cous cous. So lots of stews would work
Or you can do stuffed peppers with it.
Cous cous salad is great for a packed lunch, I take it to work a lot. Its also nice as a side with most things you would serve a salad with.
You can serve it as a sweet pudding, I've never tried it but it looks sort of similar in idea to porridge or rice pudding.

Greek salad - dice cucumbers, spring onions, beetroot, olives and feta, add a drizzle of olive pile and some black pepper, fresh mint or tzatziki if you’re feeling fancy.
Have it on its own for lunch or with lamb kebabs (from the BBQ section) or falafel for your tea.

thepeskyvegan.com/recipes/couscous-salad/

This salad is lovely as an accompaniment to something from the BBQ. DD and I have had it for packed lunches. Add feta for extra yumminess!

Roast Chicken and chicken gravy. COUSCOUS SALAD. A few salad leaves if you like. DH would want pitta, I would want yoghurt.

We usually do roast veg couscous with chicken kebab type things, and tzatziki. Pitta bread and Greek salad.

My DC love it with roast chicken, teriyaki salmon or chicken breast, garlic broccoli, lamb chops with Middle Eastern seasoning and Mediterranean veg.

As pp said, stuffed peppers taste great with it.

Spicy tomato sauce, grill halloumi and lemon couscous is a favourite quick kid week meal here

Have a Google for Tabouleh. It's a salad and it is devine! It's got lemon and parsley flavours, with olive oil, and it feels as if your taste buds are exploding!

Fry onion, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes etc, whatever veg you have, sometimes I add frozen peas.. Make up the cous cous then add it plus some veg stock to the pan with the veg. Or if no stock veg add tinned tomatoes. I used some sweet chilli sauce last night as well. Its very versatile.
Serve as a side to whatever you're having as a main meal along with salad.

I serve it up with salad, 2 desert spoons and 1 desert spoon of stuffing, but remember to add a bit of butter to the hot water.

No good for you, but I also use it to make dhal burritos (homemade lentil and spinach dhal with chopped onion bhaji and mango chutney) portioned and frozen make a great WFH lunch.

Roast a load of Mediterranean veg...peppers, onions, tomatoes, aubergine, courgette etc. Toss with the cous cous and add crumbled feta. Makes a light lunch or side dish

@bellac11 really?! Pasta ? I thought it was a grain - like polenta (we do that with cheese usually)

i digress - thank you for all your lovely ideas. Stuffed peppers we have not had that in a while (usually do rice in the mix) - so I think it’s that.

And yes I meant we eat lots of veggies and not adverse to vegetarian or vegan dinners.

Yes this! It I make something like a Napoli sauce and add some veggies and stir in couscous - then pop into peppers and bake.

Agree with tabboulleh - I would usually make it with bulgur wheat but couscous is fine:

couscous / bulgur wheat
spring onion, cucumber and tomato chopped up tiny
loads of parsley
mint - a bit less
juice and zest of a lime and a lemon
olive oil
Lots of salt

quantities are a bit to taste but I find 2-3 tbsp per 200g of couscous or bulgur wheat is optimum. It needs to look green from the parsley, rather than white from the carb.

make sure you cool the carb and squeeze out excess moisture before adding to the veggies.

it’s the freshest, cleanest flavour in the world.

Its a type of pasta made from different type of flour to 'normal' pasta