Couscous is a great fast food. The variations below are nearly a meal in itself but get yourself some spicy sausage or lamb chops to go with it and you have a great lunch. You can vary the ingredients indefinitely.
Basic couscous
1 cup couscous (precooked)
1 cup strong broth, vegetable or chicken
1 tsp smoky harissa paste or smoked paprika powder (pimento de la vera)
2 tbsp olive oil
Bring the stock to a boil, dissolve the harissa or pimenton, stir in the couscous, cover and let sit for 10 minutes until the liquid has been absorbed. Stir to break up, add the olive oil.
Fennel, pear and nuts couscous
1/2 fennel bulb
1 pear
100g brown mushrooms or oyster or fresh shiitake
2 cloves of garlic
1 Orange
almonds or hazelnuts
chopped mint, and/or coriander and/or parsley
Toast the hazelnuts in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius, when browned put them in a cloth and rub the skin off. Cut the fennel and mushrooms into strips, cut the garlic into thin slices. Fry the garlic with the mushrooms and fennel, salt. Cut the pear into cubes, juice the orange. Add the orange juice, mushrooms and fennel to the couscous and finally the chopped herbs and pear.
Some yoghurt with roasted and ground coriander and cumin seeds goes well with this.
lemon & pomegranate couscous
1 large pomegranate
1 lemon, juice and zest
chopped mint, and/or coriander and/or parsley
Zest the lemons, blanch the peel a couple of times. Scoop out the pomegranate seeds and remove the white membrane around the seeds. Add the lemon juice to the couscous, then the other ingredients.
meltingpot 