Moroccan Spiced Couscous with Vegetables and Chick Peas
Author: 
Cuisine: Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten Free*
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2
 
Moroccan spices blended together with veggies and ripe cherry tomatoes and creamy chick peas, perfect on the go dish which is easy and quick to make!
Ingredients
  • TO BOIL COUSCOUS -
  • 1 cup couscous
  • 1½ cup water
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ---------------------------------------------------
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • ¼ teaspoon cinnamon powder
  • 1 14-oz. can or 1½ cup of boiled chick peas or garbanzo beans
  • 1 green chili or 1 jalapeno, finely chopped
  • 1 medium size red onion, finely chopped
  • ½ cup green pepper, diced
  • ½ cup red pepper, diced
  • ½ cup baby zucchini, sliced (or regular zucchini)
  • 1 cup carrots, diced ( i have used yellow and dark-red carrots)
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes, halved
  • ½ cup cilantro, chopped
  • salt to taste
Method
  1. Bring 1½ cup of water to a boil in a pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of salt to this.
  2. Remove from heat, add couscous and cover it with lead or use cling-film. Let it rest for 10-12 mins.
  3. Uncover the couscous and fluff it up with the help of a fork, you can drizzle more olive oil to help with the process of separating grains. Make sure there are no big lumps. Set aside.
  4. In a pan, heat olive oil. Add bay leaf and cumin seed and cook for few seconds.
  5. Now go ahead and add garlic-ginger that we minced. Do not let this burn, just cook it for a minute or until garlic-ginger are golden, stirring constantly.
  6. Add onion and chopped green chili, saute for 1-2 minutes and add spices - turmeric powder, cinnamon powder and smoked paprika. Stir well.
  7. Now go ahead and add all the vegetable except tomatoes. Let everything cook for 5 minutes. Do not overcook, the idea is to cook till the raw flavor of veggies is gone but they retain the texture and color.
  8. Add chick peas and again cook for 1-2 minutes.
  9. Add salt to taste.
  10. Now add the fluffed up couscous, stir gently until all of the white couscous is mixed and well coated.
  11. Turn off the heat and add the cherry tomatoes. The warmth of the couscous will soften them a little.
  12. Add chopped cilantro and Serve!
My Notes
For every 1 cup of couscous, you will need 1½ cup of water. So for eg. if you are using 2 cups of couscous use 3 cups of water.

You can add almost all of your favorite veggies in this, though traditionally turnips, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, butternut squash etc. are used.

I have cut the veggies small to help speed up the cooking to make it under 30 mins, traditionally they are cut into big cubes ( about 1 to 2 inch). Feel free to cut it the way you want but keep all of them in same thickness.

Green chili is optional if you do not like heat, just use the smoked paprika.

Fresh ginger can be substituted with ground ginger powder, add it along with other spices though. Same goes with cumin seeds, can be substituted with ground cumin powder.

Gluten Free eaters, use gluten free couscous (available at places like wholefoods etc.)
Recipe by at https://www.urbancilantro.com/moroccan-spiced-couscous-with-vegetables-and-chick-peas/