This is a lovely dish, that has a summery feel, yet is delicious at anytime of year. It's a gorgeous as a salad but is also really good served hot, with pan fried salmon or lamb or chicken kebabs.
I like to use wholewheat couscous as it has a more nutty texture, but regular couscous will work just as well. The couscous is flavoured with Ras El Hanout, a North African spice mix, now available in most supermarkets.
The spice mix, along with some vegetable or chicken stock, gives the couscous a great flavour. Be sure to keep to the dry/wet ratio, or it may be fairly inedible!
A wide range of Mediterranean vegetables are roasted in olive oil and herbs, before being mixed through the warm couscous. Toasted pine nuts and finely chopped flat leaf parsley (optional) are then scattered over the top, as a final garnish before serving.
Serves 4 as a side dish
For the roasted vegetables
2-4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 red onion
1 yellow pepper
½ small aubergine
2 garlic cloves
1 courgette
Handful of cherry tomatoes
Handful of pitted black olives
1 tablespoons of dried marjoram or a few sprigs of thyme
Seasoning
For the couscous
Olive oil
1-2 teaspoons of Ras el hanout
170g wholewheat couscous
260g vegetable or chicken stock
Toasted pinenuts (optional)
Finely chopped flat leaf parsley (optional)
To make the roasted vegetables
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Peel the onion and cut it into wedges or dice.
- Cut the pepper and aubergine into small dice.
- Cut the courgette into small dice and set aside.
- Drizzle some olive oil into the bottom of a large baking tray.
- Throw in the onion, pepper and aubergine. Drizzle over a little more oil and mix well.
- Place in the hot oven and cook for 20 minutes.
- Remove the baking tray from the oven and increase the heat to 210°C.
- Throw in the courgette, cherry tomatoes, garlic cloves (still in their skins) and olives if using. Sprinkle over the marjoram and seasoning.
- Drizzle over a little more oil and mix again.
- Return to the oven for another 15-20 minutes.
- Remove the garlic from the tray, peel off the skin and return to the pan. Squish with the back of a fork and stir into the vegetables.
- Leave to cool if serving as a cold salad.
To make the couscous
- Add a drizzle more olive oil to the pan, then add the Ras el hanout and stir for 1-2 minutes, being careful not to let the spice burn.
- Add the stock to the pan and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat. Stir in the couscous and replace the lid. Leave for 10 minutes.
- Leave to cool if serving as a cold salad.
To make the salad
- In a large bowl, carefully mix together the couscous and vegetables, to prevent the vegetables from breaking into pieces.
