Seven Vegetable Couscous With Chunky Onion Harissa Recipes

SEVEN-VEGETABLE COUSCOUS

Steps:

• For the stew: Put the garlic, turnips, onion, carrot, fennel, raisins, ginger, salt, cumin, paprika, sugar, turmeric, cloves, and cinnamon in a large soup pot with a tight-fitting lid. Add 2 cups water and bring to a boil over high heat; cover, reduce the heat, and simmer until the vegetables are somewhat soft, about 10 minutes. Halve and seed the butternut squash and cut it into wedges. Tie parsley sprigs together with kitchen string. Add squash, zucchini, chickpeas, and parsley sprigs to the pot. Using your fingers and working over the pot, tear the tomatoes into big pieces and add them to the pot with their juices. Simmer the stew, covered, until it is slightly thick and fragrant, and the vegetables are fork tender but not mushy, about 15 minutes. (You can test the vegetables a bit sooner, remove them as soon as they are tender, and return them to the pot when you are ready to serve. All the vegetables should be tender enough to cut with the side of a fork, but still hold their shapes.) Remove cinnamon sticks.
• For the couscous: Bring water to a boil with the butter and salt in a small saucepan. Stir in the couscous, pull the saucepan off the heat, cover, and set aside until the water has been absorbed and the couscous is plump, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and fluff with a fork.
• To serve, spread the couscous over a large serving platter and, using a slotted spoon, mound the vegetables in the center. Pour some of the broth over the vegetables and sprinkle with the almonds. Pass the remaining broth and the harissa, if desired, at the
• table.

SEVEN VEGETABLE COUSCOUS

Steps:

• Combine the couscous and 3 cups boiling water in a heatproof bowl. Cover and let stand until the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork, then stir in the margarine, turmeric and salt. Cover and set aside.
• For the vegetable stew, heat the oil in a large saucepan or soup pot. Add the onions and sauté over medium heat until translucent. Stir in cabbage and sauté until both it and the onion are lightly golden.
• Add the remaining stew ingredients. Bring to a simmer, then cover and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes. Add water as needed to produce a moist, but not soupy, consistency. The vegetables should be just tender, but still firm.
• To serve, arrange the couscous on the outer edge of a large serving platter and make a well in the center. Pour the vegetable mixture in the center, then sprinkle with the garnishes, topping with sliced or slivered toasted almonds. Let each guest place a mound of couscous on his or her dinner plate and top it with the vegetable mixture.

VEGETABLE COUSCOUS WITH HARISSA

Steps:

• Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a medium skillet until moderately hot but not smoking. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring until softened and just beginning to brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
• Heat remaining 1/4 cup olive oil in a large heavy pan until moderately hot, but not smoking. Add next seven ingredients. Stir in 1 tablespoon Ras El Hanout. Cook, covered over medium heat until partially cooked, about 10 minutes. Stir in 3 cups of vegetable stock.
• Continue cooking until the vegetables are tender but not over-done, 20 to 30 minutes. During the last 10 minutes of the cooking, stir in the reserved portobello mushrooms and the chickpeas. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover to keep warm.
• Rinse couscous in a sieve, add 2 tablespoons Ras el Hanout and salt, to taste. Let stand for 20 minutes, then separate the grains with your fingers.
• Bring remaining 2 cups of vegetable stock to a simmer. Add couscous and cook over medium heat to steam and heat through.
• To serve, mound couscous in the center of platter and surround with the vegetables. Garnish with mint leaves.
• Mix together thoroughly.
• In a small dry skillet over medium heat, toast caraway, coriander and cumin seeds until very aromatic, about 2 to 3 minutes. Shake the pan often to prevent burning. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Grind to a fine powder in a spice grinder, coffee grinder, blender or with a mortar and pestle. Add garlic and salt and grind again until smooth. Add sweet paprika, red pepper flakes, mint leaves and olive oil and grind until the ingredients are well combined. The paste will be very thick and dry. Transfer paste to a small jar and cover with olive oil. Refrigerate for up to 6 months.

SEVEN-VEGETABLE COUSCOUS WITH CHUNKY ONION HARISSA

Steps:

• To make the couscous:
• Heat oil in heavy large Dutch oven over low heat. Add leeks and garlic. Cover and cook until leeks are very tender but not brown, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add stock and next 8 ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Increase heat and bring mixture to boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium and simmer until vegetables are crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Mix in tomatoes, peas, cilantro, then couscous. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand 10 minutes.
• Fluff couscous with fork. Transfer to large platter. Garnish with lemon wedges. Serve, passing Chunky Onion Harissa separately.
• To make the harissa
• Combine tomato paste, crushed red pepper and cayenne pepper in bowl. Gradually whisk in oil. Whisk in vinegar. Mix in onions and garlic. Season generously with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 8 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature. Stir harissa well before using.)

HARISSA COUSCOUS

Steps:

• Tip couscous into a heatproof bowl. Add a spring onions, mint and cherry tomatoes.
• Pour over hot vegetable stock mixed with harissa. Stir and cover with a plate. Leave for 5 mins, then pour over olive oil and lemon juice and stir through.

BARLEY COUSCOUS WITH SEVEN VEGETABLES

Steps:

• Prepare the couscous in a large, round, ovenproof dish as described on page 112, leaving the final heating in the oven to be done 20 to 30 minutes before serving.
• Cut the meat into 10 pieces and the onions into quarters, then into thick slices, and put them in a large pan with the drained chickpeas. Cover with about 6 pints of water, bring to the boil, and remove the scum. Add the pepper (no salt is added at this stage since it would stop the chickpeas from softening), saffron, cinnamon, and ginger and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.
• Now put in the tomatoes, carrots, turnips, cabbage, potatoes, cut in half or left whole if small, and the whole chilies, if using. Add salt, and cook for 30 minutes, or until the meat is very tender.
• Add the celery, pumpkin, zucchini, cut into fat slices or left whole if they are baby ones, fava beans, and herbs. Add more water, if necessary, taste, and adjust the seasoning, and cook 30 minutes more.
• About 20 to 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time-when the last vegetables go in-put the couscous into the oven, preheated to 400°F, and heat through until it is steaming hot, taking it out and fluffing it with a fork after about 10 minutes. Before serving, fork the butter, cut into small pieces, into the couscous and fluff up the couscous as it melts in.
• To serve, moisten the couscous with a little broth and shape it into a cone with a crater at the top. Arrange some meat in the crater and some vegetables down the sides, then pour a little broth over the mound. Bring the remaining broth, meat, and vegetables to the table in another bowl. Alternatively, bring the couscous to the table in one dish, and the broth with the meat and vegetables in another, and serve them directly into individual bowls or soup plates.
• Use 2 chickens cut into pieces instead of the meat.
• For a peppery sauce, pass around a bowl with 3 to 4 ladles of the hot broth mixed with 1 tablespoon or more harissa or 2 tablespoons paprika and 1 teaspoon or more chili pepper. Although this was originally a Tunisian and Algerian custom, not Moroccan, the French like it as do some of us now.