Cous cous?

[DaisyChaining]

Bought some wholewheat giant cous cous, cooked it in stock for 8 minutes. It doesn't taste anywhere near as nice as in restaurants/ bought salads

Any tips?

I've only ever had it at home, but I would imagine in a bought salad there would be a mixture of ingredients and a dressing, what did you have with it?

You need to add more fat, salt and sugar.
Leaving stuff to stand for hours in it's dressing also helps.

It needs a lot of dressing, oil, lemon, pepper, raw onions, cucumber and tomato, etc before it starts to taste of anything.

Use a good stock. Then add things like olive oil, lime, mint, garlic. Chuck in some chick peas, tomatoes, sautéed courgette and grilled Halloumi.

I cooked in chicken stock and garlic and left a little stock. Had with Nando's chicken, bacon, green beans, sweetcorn, goats cheese, fried red onion and toasted cashews. Was really lovely but the cous cous just wasn't very flavourful. I never really bother with dressings, a dash of balsamic but I didn't think that would go. Not a fan of olive oil 😔 want to make it for my friends next week so really desperate to improve it. Maybe chilli and more garlic?

And lime! It definitely could have done with some lime, good idea.

Add some lime or lemon juice, chopped fresh herbs such as chives or oregano, I'm not a fan of coriander but that would work too. Harissa seasoning or sumac works well too.
Add chopped olives, chopped sun dried tomatoes, chopped cucumber, spring onions, finely chopped celery, red or green peppers that have been roasted, diced roasted aubergine.
Some pesto stirred in is good too or a French dressing though you might not like that.
Pine nuts, chopped dried apricots, sultanas soaked in wine or sherry, fresh or dried figs.....
I could go on, but i'm sure yoou get the idea!

I do mine using marigolds bouillon then add the juice of two lemons, glug of garlic infused olive oil, bunch of finely chopped mint, 3/4 chopped peeled cucumber, twist of black pepper, crumbled feta.

Another one: warm this time. Aubergine, courgette, red onion, cherry toms, yellow pepper roasted with a bit of garlic. Make up the cous cous with marigold and season then gently stir in a chopped round of Somerset goats cheese. Top with the roasted veg, top that with some mixed leaves and serve with a Harissa dressing. Is yum with roast lamb - especially yum in the garden on a warm summer evening.

Cous cous needs chopped cucumber, peppers, red onion and coriander, a squidge of lemon juice and some lemon zest, a smidge of olive oil.

That's a yummy way to do it,

I seem to remember BBC Good Food having good recipes for things like this.

Pomegranate seeds are a good garnish, a nice bright colour, as are red currants, both work well with lamb.

I like to slice onion quite thinly and soften in oil until it turns a golden brown, I also pan fry small tomatoes whole and add those in. lots of chopped parsley, oil and lemon juice. I usually use the small couscous and always use boullion powder in the water I soak it in.

Totally missing the point of the thread, but I didn't realise you could/should cook cous cous!

I always just mix it with boiling water, stock and any other ingredients that would work better infused, cover it, leave it until the water's soaked in then fluff it up with a fork and serve. It's always been fine and much like restaurant or shop bought cous cous.

The op has got giant Cous Cous, you do need to cook it.

Giant couscous is more similar to small lumps of pasta than it is to normal couscous. Get the dressing on it as soon as it is cooked and use more seasoning than you deem reasonable.

Brilliant, thanks everyone.

Ah sorry, tbf it was the middle of the night and I don't think I was firing on all cylinders

Some great ideas on this thread anyway though!

Inspired by this thread we have just eaten giant couscous. Used bouillon and a sachet out of some cheap noodles. Added a slug of honey and mustard dressing when it was still hot. Fried up a couple of onions, a courgette and some halloumi. Yellow pepper, mangetout, little brown chickpeas and mooli plus a massive handful of fresh herbs, had to add almost all the juice from a lemon to pep it up and shed loads of pepper. It really is rather bland on it's own.