Morocco! One country that has been on my mind in last few months! The country, the colors, the culture and especially the food! Can’t believe I was so close to the Morocco while being in Spain but truly wish I should have visited it. But for now as close as I could get to Morocco is diving into the amazing aroma of spices and flavors of Moroccan cuisine! Its amazing how without even visiting a nation, food alone can take you on a spin virtually!
Its often safe to eat in our comfort zone, what you grew up eating but one thing I sure did learn well during my student years abroad is that EXPERIMENT & WELCOME THE NEW CHANGES! Same goes for food! Whenever I am cooking something new from a specific region, I like to do my research, read a lot, I try to stay as close to the original dish as I can. I would do my tweaks to suit my taste-buds at times, but as always MUST stay close to the original (as much as I can). Once I master the original ( if i can say so myself! ), I would go ahead and experiment with new ideas. Now that being said, this particular dish I learnt in 2005 from a friend I stayed with in student-village. That was the time I was first introduced to my new friend couscous!
Couscous (pounced as ‘ku:sku:s’) ! How i love it so much, easy cook, easy to digest, low in calories and you can almost…..almost, add anything to this! And this my friends is a win-win ingredient in my book! It is basically a type of semolina derived from durum-wheat. Traditionally it takes hours to make fresh couscous and its a laborious job of sprinkling water and sieving but we do not need to do that, all you need to do it head to your local supermarket and find instant whole-wheat couscous! Which is usually pre-cooked and dried (like pasta) and needs just few minutes to cook! I have used Trader Joe’s whole-wheat couscous here.
Couscous is a staple in many countries’ cuisines such as Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Israel, Morocco etc. I am taking my cues from Moroccan cuisine today because the spices they use are almost similar to Indian cuisine yet the combination is so varied that it tastes different yet delicious. Moroccan cuisines uses a wide array of spices, some of them are bay leaves, ginger, cinnamon, cumin and turmeric.
The aromas and flavors from spices, heat from the chili and smokiness of paprika, crunch and freshness of the veggies and creaminess of chick peas works so wonderfully in this dish. Its one of my favorites and easy to cook when super hungry (which is usually the case with me at dinnertime!). Packs so well in the lunchbox too! Make it! and may be close your eyes (like I do) and imagine you are somewhere in Morocco, eating couscous and sipping on fresh Green Mint Tea! Brilliant!!!
- 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
- Bring 1½ cup of water to a boil in a pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of salt to this.
- Remove from heat, add couscous and cover it with lead or use cling-film. Let it rest for 10-12 mins.
- 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.
- In a pan, heat olive oil. Add bay leaf and cumin seed and cook for few seconds.
- 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.
- Add onion and chopped green chili, saute for 1-2 minutes and add spices - turmeric powder, cinnamon powder and smoked paprika. Stir well.
- 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.
- Add chick peas and again cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Add salt to taste.
- Now add the fluffed up couscous, stir gently until all of the white couscous is mixed and well coated.
- Turn off the heat and add the cherry tomatoes. The warmth of the couscous will soften them a little.
- Add chopped cilantro and Serve!
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.)
Leave a Reply