Parveen The Spice Queen: Couscous - so good they named it twice

Let’s look at the evidence; we’ve got beautiful sunshine, we have our phones, iPads, PCs so we can Skype, video call and now we of course everyone is “zooming”, then we have our home-entertainment, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sky et al.

We all have access to clean water, clean air and supermarkets full of all manner of ingredients to make anything our little heart’s desire - so, what are we all complaining about?

Sorry for getting on my soap box, which I do sometimes, so let me jump off my box and talk about food.

So, the sun is shining and it’s barbecue season!! Yeeeahh. I love a BBQ...Having said that, it’s not alwaysceasy to know what to serve with our barbecued meats and fish. I usually serve a nice salad, home-made coleslaw and some nice spicy dips but recently I have been experimenting with couscous.

I just usually buy ready-made couscous but then I realised just how easy it is to make. You literally add boiling water to re-hydrate it then add some flavours. If you are a meat-eater like my husband, then you can use chicken or lamb stock to re-hydrate your couscous and you will find that it soaks up the flavour beautifully.

If you are a veggie like my daughter then there is a whole myriad of vegetables and herbs you can add to give it some taste.

Couscous, it’s a very gracious ingredient and will take on any flavour you deem fit to bestow upon it.

On its own, it’s not very good (so it definitely wouldn’t like to self-isolate) it needs to be with others to come alive. Sounds a bit like me, anyway I am digressing - the point is that couscous has no real flavour nor taste of its own.

Having said that though, it is the perfect accompaniment to barbecued meats and fish. So don’t be shy, be generous and go for big flavours and you will be amazed how good it tastes - in fact it so nice, that they named it twice.

LIME & CORIANDER
 COUSCOUS 

Serves 2 to 4 people

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup couscous

2 tbsp fresh coriander 

Juice of 1 lime

2 tbs pomegranates (optional)

1 roasted or BBQ'd red pepper 

1 tbsp olive oil

½ salt 

½ pepper

METHOD:

1. In a large bowl, add the couscous with salt and pepper, gently mix with your hands.

2. Pour 1½ cups of boiling water over the couscous. Cover with cling film and allow it to soak up the water for 10minutes.

3. Remove the clingfilm and add lime juice, oil, coriander, pomegranate and peppers. Gently stir in and taste. If you need more flavour add another half juice of lime and a sprinkle of salt.

Parveen’s Top Tip: For extra flavour add 1 tsp of chilli flakes. Do not use chilli powder as it doesn’t work as well.

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