Vegetable Couscous with Spinach & Chickpeas
Ingredients
For the couscous:
- 250 g couscous
- 375 ml vegetable stock or water, salted
- 1 tbsp olive oil or butter
- pinch salt
Vegetables:
- 2 tbsp olive oil ~30 ml
- 1 small onion finely chopped (~100 g)
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 medium carrot diced (~100 g)
- 1 small courgette diced (~150 g)
- 1 tsp ground cumin about 3 g
- ½ tsp ground coriander about 1.5 g
- ¼ tsp cinnamon optional
- 1 tin chickpeas drained (~240 g cooked weight)
- 30 to 40 g raisins or chopped dried apricots
- 60 to 80 g fresh spinach roughly chopped
- zest of 1 lemon
To finish:
- Juice of ½ to 1 lemon about 15–30 ml
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs parsley, coriander, mint — ~5–10 g total
- Toasted almonds or pine nuts optional — ~20 g
- Feta or labneh optional — ~30–50 g per person
- harissa or yoghurt to serve
Instructions
Prepare the vegetables:
- In a wide sauté pan, heat olive oil.
- Sauté onion for 3–4 minutes until soft.
- Add garlic, carrot, and courgette. Cook for ~5–7 minutes until tender.
- Stir in cumin, coriander, cinnamon, chickpeas, and raisins.
- Cook another 2–3 minutes.
- Add spinach & combine:
- Add spinach to the warm vegetables. Let it wilt (1–2 minutes).
Cook the couscous:
- Bring vegetable stock to a boil.
- Stir in couscous, olive oil or butter, and salt.
- Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
- Fluff in the cooked couscous and lemon zest. Mix gently.
Season & serve:
- Add lemon juice, herbs, and toasted nuts.
- Taste and adjust salt, spice, or lemon as needed.
- Serve warm with feta/labneh and harissa or spiced yoghurt.
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