One of my favorite quick meals for dinner is Couscous mixed with sauteed veggies and a protein. In this recipe, I'll include options to make the dish vegetarian and omnivore friendly. When making sautee type dishes, I typically don't use exact measurements. I just cut up enough I think will work for the number of people I'm cooking for. For this recipe you'll need:
Ingredients
- Chopped Zucchini
- Chopped Eggplant
- Chopped Carrots
- Couscous
- Protein source cut into cubes: For veg version, use extra firm tofu or tempeh. For omnivore version, use chicken
- Vegetable or chicken stock: Vegetable for veg version and chicken for omnivore version
- Chopped garlic
- Chopped onions
- evoo (extra virgin olive oil)
- Butter (optional)
Start cookin'
- First, in a pot make the couscous according to the instructions on the box. Usually, the instructions ask for 1-1/4c of water per 1 cup of dry couscous.
- Instead of all water I'll use, half water and half vegetable stock for a veg version, or half chicken stock for an omnivore version. The stock adds more flavor.
- I also throw in a Tbsp of butter for some richness, but you can use evoo instead. It's good to put some kind of oil so that the couscous can moisten. Using extra water just makes it mushy which is not too tasty.
- Let the couscous sit until we need it later in the recipe. Save some of the stock because we'll be using it later.
- In a separate frying pan, sautee some chopped garlic and onion in evoo. Be sure to use a pan that can hold the veggies, protein, and couscous all together.
- Throw in some chopped zuchini and carrots. Sautee.
- Stir ocassionaly, and let those veggies cook for a few minutes and then throw in the eggplant. The zucchini and carrots take a bit longer to cook.
- After a couple minutes, throw in your protein source cut into cubes to the sautee.
- Add some seasoning to the sautee like sea salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. If you like spicy, add some Cayenne Pepper to taste. Cayenne is very powerful so use sparingly.
- Continue to sautee everything together til your protein is thoroughly cooked. To help soften up the veggies, I'll throw in some extra veg or chicken stock during the sautee.
- Now that everything in the pan is cooked, pour in the couscous from the pot, and mix everything together really well. Again, pour in some of the extra veg or chicken stock to help moisten up the dish.
- Cook and keep stirring for another 5 minutes or so, and voila! you're done.
- Ready to serve and nosh!
