On economy drive, have lentils, cous cous, pearl barley, inspire me please

[walkinthewoods]

Just that really. I do lentil soup and lentil dhal and that's about it. Have never tried cous cous before but like the look of JO's cous cous with oinions and courgettes.

meant to post on recipes

Couscous is really good and so so easy! I usually cook it and add chopped cucumber, toms, herbs (lots and lots), maybe some feta, then oil and vinegar. If you have some spices, you could add them too. Some people might add things like chopped apricot for a bit of sweetness. If you have brown lentils, you can do the same, and even with pearl barley. Pearl barley has no taste at all by itself!

Couscous is brilliant.

Tonight we had a salad of couscous, sweetcorn, soya beans and mango to go with our roasted chicken thighs and onions. DS loved it.

lentils and pulses are good protein substitutes instead of meat. Couscous is just tiny round pasta so use it as the carb part of your meal instead of rice or potatoes (I wouldn't say it is cheaper than rice or potatoes though, necessarily). Pearl barley is also a carb, good for adding to soups and stews or in salads like tabouleh.

You can use lentils for all sorts of cooking. There are always loads of threads full of recipes, so your best bet is to do a quick search.

Pearl barley is delicious with lamb, I just boil it up in stock/herbs and serve as you would mash etc.

Google Simon Rimmer and see if you can find a recipe for his vegan hotpot. I haven't made it yet but it looks lovely and uses barley plus lots of cheap root vege.

Lentils can be cooked with rice to make kitchiree (sp?) which is a veggie original of kedgeree (which was bastardised in the days of the Raj from the original).

Cous cous is nice in stuffed peppers.

Lovely will add to my recipe book. Thanks