The house has been under the weather at the moment, most likely due to the turbulent weather change that we have been experiencing this February. The week before we enjoyed a warmish 13 degrees Celsius and this week the temperature gauge plummeted to -1 degrees Celsius, which brought another round of coughing, sneezing, sputtering, and recently, the flu (my husband was out for 3 days this week, completely bedridden). So, again, I tried to go for meals that packed the most nutritious punch like my Winter Warming Veg Soup. But, unfortunately, as I was a maid for 3 sick boys, I had to speed up my meals and spend less time making elaborate dishes in the kitchen. Welcome to Couscous – literally the busy parent’s saviour when you have less than 20 minutes to cook up something healthy, hearty and filling. Whole wheat couscous takes about 5 – 10 minutes until it’s ready to be plated and steaming is the quickest and best way to enjoy veg without losing most of the nutrients through cooking. Potatoes and sweet potatoes are so versatile and hearty (check out Jen’s post here on Syn Free Jacket Potato Fillings). But, just having veg and carbs can get boring, so I mixed through some raw tomatoes to enhance the flavour and cool down the dish, so the boys could lap up the meal quickly. It took me 20 minutes, from scratch to plate, so get your timer on and start cooking!
Here are all the ingredients you need:
Why whole wheat couscous? Compared to its white semolina counterpart, whole wheat couscous is really low in fat and cholesterol, as well as high in protein and fibre too. Here is the finished version:
So, let’s make it!
- 5 medium tomatoes, chopped into chunks
- 2 Medium sweet potatoes, chopped into chunks
- 1 head of broccoli, chopped into chunks
- 2 red onions, sliced
- 2 cups wholewheat cous cous
- 1 tsp Italian Herb Seasoning
- 1 tsp Paprika
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Cumin
- 1 tsp Bouillon Swiss Veg Powder - or just simple veg stock
- 1 tsp Flax Seed (optional but adds an omega-3s, iron, calcium and protein boost)
- Steam all the veg for 15 minutes (or until cooked through and soft)
- While the veg are steaming, add the 2 cups of Cous Cous to a bowl with 3 cups of boiling hot water and mix in the seasoning well. Leave aside until the water is completely evaporated.
- Once the Cous Cous has soaked up the water, add the raw chopped tomatoes and mix well.
- Finally, mix in the vegetables and plate up
- Done!
- The ratio for wholewheat Cous Cous is 1 1/2 cups of water to 1 cup of Cous Cous
Get creative with this dish – experiment with the stock that you add to the couscous or add other vegetables – potatoes are great to include here too. You could make a delicious red wine sauce and add that to the couscous, which will give it a more earthy flavour. It is so much fun to get creative in the kitchen, but if you need a little confidence boost, I have an article on how to get more confident in the kitchen. It’s a great way to start building up your culinary skills too. Also, when you subscribe to my newsletter every Sunday, I will send you more tips on how to build up your chef skills and get creative with your meals as well.
Week 2 is all about where you can substitute ingredients for much healthier versions. So, in my obviously unbiased opinion, it’s well worth subscribing to my emails if you haven’t done so yet. You’ll also get a new recipe every Sunday, my super-duper Meal Planner (week 3) and lots of other free printables and checklists that you can print out and stick on your fridge! FOR FREE!
Form on the right →
If you decide to make this recipe (and I really think that you should), please do tag me on @fiveforafiver on Facebook/Twitter (@Fiveforafiver1 on Instagram), using the hashtags #fiverfoodies and/or #fiveforafiver, so I can see your awesome creations – thanks!
If you’re ready to create your recipe, click on the button below and head over to MySupermarket to buy your ingredients.
![Mysupermarket widget to buy ingredients for homemade burgers - fiveforafiver](http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/Api.aspx?banner=xx&Command={"Output":"JSON","Commands":[{"Name":"Recipe","Params":{"ingredients":["tomatoes", "red onion", "sweet potato", "wholewheat cous cous", "broccoli"],"image":"http://fiveforafiver.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Turkey-Ham-Bruschetta.jpg","Sweet Potato, Tomato and Broccoli Cous Cous"}}]})
Prices from Asda are £3.54 as at 18 February 2018 (prices may vary after this date)
;
Leave a Reply