Vegetable couscous

Tonight I made myself the dish that makes Magda Gessler faint and gets top chefs kicked off television. Couscous. No royal Moroccan couscous, either. Just plain old couscous with vegetables.

I fancied something warm with carrots. “Fancied” might be putting it a bit strongly. I’ve somehow ended up with an extraordinary number of carrots in the house (a sign that winter’s on its way). So I settled on a dish that’s child’s play to make. If you give it a go, let me know how you liked it and whether you enjoy making simple recipes like this at home. And of course I’d love your couscous ideas. Couscous is something else I usually have in the cupboard.

At a glance:

Prep time: 12 minutes

Serves: this version is for one. To feed more people, just multiply the ingredients by the number of people.

How many calories? You can happily eat this for supper with a clear conscience.

Ingredients for couscous:

• Half a small bowl of couscous
• Half a glass of stock (Magda Gessler and all you other ballerinas, close your eyes now. Yes, I admit it: I dissolved half a stock cube in a glass of water and then poured half of that over the couscous)
• one medium carrot
• half a small courgette
• one large shallot
• 1/3 of a large, fresh, crunchy, sweet, juicy red pepper 
• about 4 cm from the bottom (the pale green bit) of a thick leek
• a sprig of fresh parsley 
• olive oil
• two pinches of salt
• two pinches of ground black pepper

The recipe (if you can call it that):

Right, first let’s get Magda Gessler and the cooks who can’t bear soup from a cube out of the way. Stock from a cube, actually. I used one. Forgive me, this is Primitive Kitchen. That’s all the explaining I’m doing. Have they fainted yet?

OK, I pour the stock made with half a stock cube over the couscous, enough to cover it with about 1 cm of stock to spare (like the shallows on the Baltic coast). I cover the bowl with a plate and set it aside to absorb the water.

I chop the vegetables in the order they go into the pan. Shallot first. Once that’s in the hot olive oil (literally just a few drops), I chop the carrot and add it to the pan. Same goes for the courgette, pepper and leek. The important thing is to cut all the vegetables into small pieces. I fry them briefly and add salt and pepper to taste. After about 6–7 minutes of stirring, I add the plumped-up couscous to the pan and mix everything thoroughly. I take the pan off the “flame”.

I finely chop the parsley and add it to the pan (saving a little to decorate the dish). One more stir. I spoon it onto a plate and that’s it. I garnish it with fresh parsley. Enjoy!