cous cous - suggestions

[glassofwine]

After years of trying to change mine, but especially DH's eating habits he has finally decided to embrace change, He read the 'You Are What You Eat' book and is now saying that he's surprised he's still alive. So this weekend we went off to the supermarket and bought loads of food that he would never have eaten before. I want to keep this going - he's always been v unadventurous a meat and two veg type. Anyway... Cous Cous - I love it as a salad but have always bought the pre-made tubs being the only one who'd eat it, so odn't know any receipes. Also years ago I had a vegitarian phase and used to make a great Morocan cous cous, but have no memory of how. Any help with cous cous or indeed any other 'healthy' but tasty receipes.

Put 250g couscous in a bowl and mix in 50ml olive oil, juice of 1/2 lemon, salt and pepper. Add 250ml cold water. It doesn't need cooking, but put a bit more water in if you find it a bit chewy. Grill some veg, chop and mix in. I personally put a couple of red peppers in a v hot oven until completely black, peel and chop, and often cook aubergine and courgette (brushed with oil) on a griddle pan until soft, and chop those, but you can use whatever you like - even just tomatoes to avoid cooking. Mix into the couscous, along with loads of chopped herbs like basil, mint and coriander or whatever. Add minced onion and garlic and chili if you like. Hey presto couscous salad. I don't put in raw onion 'cos don't like the dogbreath.

My children love couscous with corn and peas in and fried egg on top. Just put one cup of cous cous in a bowl, pour one cup of boiling water on, cover and leave for 5 mins. Mix in a bit on butter, stir in the cooked veg and serve with the egg on top. Whole thing takes 5 mins and is reasonably nutritious.

• fry a half of onion in some butter

- add some peas/and or sweetcorn (about a mug's worth) and 300ml of chicken stock, bring to the boil and cook for 3 minutes - take pan off the heat and stir in 130g of couscous. Cover and leave for 6 minutes - fluff up with a fork and add in some minced cooked chicken.

Scoff Great as a quick light lunch. Tend to vary the meat and veg depending what's in the cupboard at the time.

The key with Couscous is to add strong flavours and spices as otherwise it is really bland and hard to eat.
We often make it with whatever is left in the fridge, a combination of any veg, bits of chicken etc.
The tiniest dab of harrissa mixed with oil is lovely stirred into it, especially Belaruzas Rose Harrissa. Garlic, Lime, Chilli, orange juice and even diced watermelon are favourites in our house to add flavour!
It's also good to add a few pine nuts or dry roasted seeds to give it a bit of texture.

If you have any particular favourite pre made tubs then buy one and look at the ingredients listing and make your own version with a rough estimation of it.

My favourite (errr only!) cous cous recipe is to add tomato, cucumber, spring onion, black olive and feta cheese and a dressing of oil, lemon juice and mint leaves. Hmmmmm.

How do you get children to eat cous cous? Mine don't like and ds1 says it's about the texture.

All sound great - sounds like a real store cupboard staple, thanks to you all. Will also try on LO's, but not convinced they'll eat it.

I make my cous cous with onions, leeks and peppers fried in Frylight. Add tiny amount of sugar and then some balsamic vinegar. Mix into prepared cous cous and you have a lovely dish!

I tried to cook couscous the other day, I boiled it as though it was rice (well I didn't know, did I?) and ended up with a sort of saucepan-shaped beige jelly which wibbled alarmingly when I tipped it into the bin

My two (aged 5 and 2) eat the recipe I provided earlier - in terms of flavour it's not far removed from something like supernoodles or savory rice with less salt & rubbish in it. They view it as a great treat