Healthy choice if you're looking for a plant-based meal. Fresh and vibrant and no tomatoes if that's what you're looking for. However it's also a versatile vegetable couscous and is easily adaptable.
This vegetable couscous recipe is prepared in matter of minutes all in one skillet and ready to served with a dollop of sour cream, or not. The simplicity, colorful veggies and speed in which you can have this on the table is enough to give it a try. The perfect meatless (vegan) gluten free meal!
We make a lot of meat recipes on this blog and on my Instagram. From roasts and curries to steaks and slow roasts but I am more a vegetable human rather than a meat human. I love my veggies and when I've made enough meat dinners for my husband to enjoy I start craving my veg and this Vegetable Couscous Recipe is such a light easy meal. A real pleasure to make 🙂
VEGETABLE COUSCOUS RECIPE
HOW TO MAKE THIS VEGGIE COUSCOUS RECIPE
Veggie preparation
Rinse and cut the peppers. Deseed them, remove and discard the tops and then cut into cubes or rectangle pieces it really doesn’t matter as long as they are bite sized.
Couscous
I would suggest to start by cooking the couscous because while it soaks up all the water to fluff up you can be getting on with the veggies. There is a couscous recipe right here if you need one.
Spices/Salt & Pepper
In terms of spices, I have kept it as simple as possible. A little sea salt, black pepper, chili flakes and a pinch of veggie spice. It really doesn’t need any more than that and you might even want to leave the chili flakes out for less heat.
Oils
I start off by heating vegetable oil and once it cooks the onions to a shimmer I toss in the eggplant chunks. Let those cook for about 2 to 5 minutes on low to medium heat. You will notice the eggplant starts smoking after a few minutes and that's when you add in the olive oil to finish cooking it until it goes a nice brown.
Finely sliced onions
I have added diced onions in the beginning with the garlic to start the recipe off and this is followed by the finely sliced onion. The only reason I do this is create a kind of a layer of textures in the dish as opposed to one one type of texture.
Vegetable stock
I find that when adding vegetable stock, if you are not making a soup or stew type of dish then you need to use less. Pouring the stock in slowly is always the better option because each recipe is different as is our taste. My suggestion is to add the stock from the side of the saucepan (slowly) as opposed to pouring it over the veggies.
HOW TO RETAIN THE CRUNCH OF THE VEGETABLES
Eggplant and peppers don't take that long to cook and when you are using any liquid and you add it directly over the veggies they immediately lose their crunch and that's not what we're going for. This vegetable couscous recipe is a crunchy bite of crisp vegetables.
All the reason and more on why you should make this recipe are below even though, if you love veggies and you probably do if you are reading this, you will find even more reasons to love this it!
REASONS TO LOVE THIS VEGAN RECIPE
- One pan
- Vegan
- Healthy
- Crispy
- Crunchy
- Super simple
- Delicious
- Versatile
- How To Cook Couscous 1 Ingredient 5 Minutes
- Forbidden Black Rice And Couscous Salad With Pomegranate
- How To Make A Fluffy Couscous, Veg & Chicken Meal
- Vegan Bean Curry Recipe
- My Homemade Asian Inspired Soup – VEGAN
Watch the video here.
Vegetable Couscous
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked couscous
- 2 tbsps vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 red onion half roughly chopped into chunks and the other half diced
- 2 cloves fresh garlic minced
- 1 eggplant chunks
- 1 red pepper small
- 1 yellow pepper small
- salt & pepper to taste
- pepper flakes , pinch
- veggie spice pinch (optional)
- ½ cup vegetable stock
- ¼ cup rocket finely chopped
Instructions
- Heat a skillet and add oil to heat.
- Add onion chunks, stir, cook for a minute.
- Add minced garlic, mix it in.
- Add the eggplant chunks, mix it in and cook on low to medium heat until the eggplant turns a golden brown cooked color. 2 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Once the eggplant starts cooking but smoking from the vegetable oil, add in the olive oil, mix and continue cooking for about a minute. The olive oil will stop the smoking and allow the eggplant to brown finish.
- Add in all the peppers, mix and cook for a further minute.
- Add the finely chopped onion, mix.
- Add the salt, pepper, chili flakes and veggie spice if using. Mix.
- With a spoon gently move the food away from the of the pan and slowly pour in the stock. Pouring it in from the side on not over them ensures a better crunch on the veggies. Add slowly depending on how much longer you want your veg cooked, If it's almost done add only half you can always add again if you want to. This should take about a minute.
- Add the cooked couscous. Taste and season and serve with a dollop of sour cream or dressing if desired.
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