Grilled veg couscous salad

Arazi, Ron, and Leetal Arazi. 'Couscous'. NYSHUK. N.p., 2015. Web. 27 May 2015.

Feature Ingredient: Couscous

Couscous originates from traditional Berber cuisine from North Africa, where it is regarded as almost a comfort food! It consists of semolina, a type of processed durum wheat, salt, oil, butter and water, and is cooked through steaming. Couscous is a staple throughout North African and Middle Eastern cuisine, and has even rose to prominence in other cultures too! Traditionally, couscous is served with vegetables or meat stews spooned over it.
Today, we'll be combining couscous with roasted vegetables, a recipe inspired by this recipe.

Recipe: Grilled veg couscous salad

Serves 12-14

Ingredients:
400g whole wheat couscous
800 - 900ml of vegetable stock (depends if you prefer the couscous a bit harder or softer)
3 zucchinis/courgettes, sliced
1 red capsicum, sliced into squares
1 broccoli head, divided into smaller florets
250g green beans, ended chopped off/removed
Small bunch of flat parsley, roughly minced
Small bunch of coriander, roughly minced
180g marinated grilled mushrooms, sliced (I used store bought ones)
180g kalamata olives, pitted 
180g marinated capsicum (I used store bought ones)
300g pumpkin, cubed
Lemon juice or any other vinaigrette you prefer
Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Grill the sliced zucchinis, green beans and capsicum.
2. Steam the broccoli and diced pumpkin; after steaming the pumpkin slightly, grill the pumpkin slightly or you can just fully steam the pumpkin. 
3. Boil the vegetable stock. Then place the couscous into a large bowl, adding the hot stock and sealing with cling wrap. After 5 - 10 minutes, fluff the couscous with a fork.
4. Add the grilled ingredients, herbs, olives, mushrooms, capsicum, and vinaigrette. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Combine well and serve. 

My turn at it:

Prepare the vegetables. 

Grill or steam the vegetables (pumpkin not pictured)

Combine all the ingredients (I switched to a bigger bowl; more space to combine)

Mix the ingredients well.

Ratings/Comments:

Price: 4/5

Difficulty: 3/5

Taste: 5/5

Overall: 4/5

(1 being low - 5 being high)

This recipe was so delicious and huge! I didn't realise how much couscous I was making until it was too late - make sure you cook the right amount - but it was ok since I was cooking for a crowd. Generally 1 cup of uncooked couscous makes 4 cups of cooked couscous, so alter this recipe to fit you! The couscous was also very filling and tasted so fresh and healthy - all the vegetables also made the couscous a melting pot of colours and flavours. However, shopping for the ingredients was a bit tedious and costly, but it is really worth it in the end, considering how much it made! I really hope you'll give this recipe a go, have fun!

- C