Although some folks consider couscous a whole grain, I just think of it as very small pasta. But the whole wheat version of this very small pasta is very tasty and a serving has seven grams of fiber. Not too shabby for tiny pasta.
Couscous is very versatile and I recently concocted a sweet side dish featuring dried fruit and the healthful sweet spices cardamom and cinnamon. The dish complements spicy main dishes and the leftovers are great for breakfast the next day. This couscous may be sweet, but there is no sugar added! The combination of dried fruit and nut increases the fiber content of this dish too, making it a truly healthful side dish.
To see the recipe, just read more.
Inspired by recipes from Epicurious, Cook.com, and All Recipes
I was grilling spicy lamb kabobs and wanted a sweet couscous as a side dish. After looking at multiple recipes, here is the recipe I came up with based on ingredients I already had in my cabinets.
Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat couscous
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
fresh lemon juice of two medium lemons (about 5 tablespoons)
fresh orange juice of one small orange (about 3 tablespoons)
1 generous tablespoon grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 dried dates, pitted and chopped
1 cup pistachios toasted
2 medium shallots chopped fine
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
Directions
- Bring 2 cups water to boil in medium saucepan. Stir in couscous and remove from heat. Cover and let stand 3 minutes. Stir in dried apricots. Let stand 2 minutes. Fluff with fork. Transfer to large bowl.
- Whisk olive oil, lemon juice, orange juice, lemon peel, with cardamom and cinnamon to blend in small bowl. Drizzle over couscous while couscous is still warm.
- Mix dates, pistachios, minced shallots, and mint. Season with salt and pepper.
- Let stand at room temperature at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours. Garnish with mint sprigs.
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Littlewoods
Vivienne Westwood
Moschino
This sounds delicious
1That sounds fantastic! I saved the recipe and I'm definitely trying it. I love couscous!
2i have been known to have couscous for breakfast instead of oatmeal and this sounds like a good recipe for that minus the shallots and oil plus a dash of vanilla soy milk
3Hmm...whole wheat couscous? Sounds pretty good. I've never seen it in stores, but I will look for it.
4Yeah this could be fun for breakfast when oatmeal gets dull. I'd love it on a cold morning with some freshly ground coffee..mmm.
5...but to add to my above post, I meant it's breakfastworthy if you negate the shallots and oil and pump it up with the nilla soymilk like misslilad suggested....in fact this recipe would be great to sub in all kinds of stuff for a morningtime meal.
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