Arabian Couscous Salad
Supper this evening, was a little Arabian magic-spell, to ward off any evil inches gathering too closely around my waistline. Yes, I do worry and I do struggle, when it comes to maintaining some semblance of a "figure", whilst dedicating myself so intensely to creating these recipes and updating this blog with my little creations...
So a salad it was to be! But not just an ordinary salad, I still wanted something satisfying and tasty and I wanted to have a little fun. So I grabbed my favorite Arabian spice mix, Ras al Hanout, and my mortar and pestle... and before I even had a real plan... a real plan began to form in my minds eye...
I mixed the ground spices into my couscous- it was about 1 teaspoonful to 2 cups of couscous. I then added raisins, turmeric, barberries, shredded white cabbage, shallot, finely chopped mint and cilantro, some grated ginger, a squeeze of lime juice, a sprinkle of sugar, salt and pepper, and added enough boiling water to cover it all and then about 1" more. And that was it. I gave it a good stir, covered it and let it sit for 5-10 minutes, until the couscous had absorbed all of the water, and the flavors from the spices and other ingredients had infused the now wonderfully fluffy couscous with their yumminess! I smelt fantastic!
The heat of the boiling water had "cooked" the shallot and the white cabbage just enough, that they still were crunch and had "bite" to them, but were much milder and enjoyable to eat. I added fresh cilantro leaves, a small handful of coarsely-chopped pistachios, a drizzle of sesame oil and a sprinkle of ground sumac. And that was my Supper- all done in around 10 minutes! Light enough to make any dietician smile and satisfying enough to keep those evil calories at bay! As if by magic!
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