Steaming Around

Zucchine Tonde ripiene di Couscous alla Menta con Peperone Miste, Olive & Feta

Round Zucchini with Mixed Pepper, Olive, Feta & Mint Couscous

There are so many ways to prepare food that keep it tasty, light and healthy and probably the best method is steaming. Because steam is much hotter than boiling water, it cooks quicker- and obviously all of the goodness in the food does not get rinsed away as with boiling... so it's just a very good thing, period!

I steamed both the zucchini and the couscous in this dish, which obviously saved even more time and also washing up- my 2 favorite things when it comes to cooking! And if you try it, you will see- there is no reason to fry anything in this dish and you can taste much more of the foods natural flavors... so let's start getting things steamy!

To make this, I had a little prep-work in the way of chopping the peppers and onion and hollowing out the zucchini, but after that it was plain sailing :-) 

For the zucchini- all it took was 1 cut and 1 circular scoop with a teaspoon- no trouble. For the rest- a fine dice was the order of the day! So that meant 1 spring onion, 1 half each of a red, yellow and green bell pepper 5-6 olives cut into quarters. In addition to this came a good handful of finely chopped mint and about half as much finely chopped parsley. This all went into a bowl with some salt, pepper, the juice of half a lemon and a splash of Tabasco. To this, I added 2 handfuls of couscous and a drizzle of olive oil. 

Next, I spooned the couscous-mix into a small heat-resistant dish and set the zucchini on top. 

These went into a hot saucepan on top my trusty little steam rack, where I let them sit and steam and sweat for 15 minutes until everything was nice and fluffy and in the meantime I crumbled a little Feta cheese, ready to sprinkle on top of the couscous later on. Once the 15 minutes were up and the zucchini and couscous were done, I took them out of the steamer and let them cool off. I served them up in individual little portions for my photo, to show that this would make great little appetizers, but the main thing is to add some feta cheese to the couscous which also adds a little seasoning and a light drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice and if you are up for it (as I was!) a sprinkle of chili flakes, just to up the stakes a little in the flavor department ;-)

So as I said at the beginning- a wonderfully simple, refreshing a light combination that I hope you all try and above all enjoy! Have fun cooking!