This quick and easy couscous mixture is a definite crowd-pleaser. The flavors of toasted pine nuts, fresh tomatoes, pesto, and Parmesan cheese all combine to make a delicious dish that tastes great warm, room temperature, and cold, so you can refrigerate any that is left over, and easily have it the next day.
Sometimes a cook needs a really easy, really quick, yet really delicious recipe to fall back on during busy times. I won’t list to you my family’s schedule these days (it would take too long, and would most likely be boring to anyone but me!) but let’s just say that on many evenings, there isn’t a lot of time to make a complicated meal. This couscous dish has been in a regular rotation with us lately, because it takes under ten minutes to prepare, yet it tastes like it took much longer, and it incorporates great flavor with good nutrients.
The Near East company makes all kinds of flavors of couscous mixtures, and I have tried many of them. For this dish, I like to use the toasted pine nut couscous mix, and then add my own tomatoes, pesto, and cheese. (I am not getting paid to promote this company’s couscous mix, though maybe I should look into that….)
Though couscous is not gluten-free (it is made from semolina, so it is actually considered a form of pasta), it does have some health benefits, such as vitamins B and E, and a relatively high amount of the mineral selenium. I am kind of in the middle of the road when it comes to gluten, where I am trying not to eat too much of it, yet I find that eating some foods with it works fine for my body. The thing I really like about couscous is the quick-cooking factor, and also the versatility. It’s a way to get in some vegetables and herbs, like tomatoes and basil, and feel full and nourished at the same time.
Anyway, I love the tangy taste of the pesto with the fresh, ripe tomatoes, which are so good this time of year! If you want to add shredded, cooked chicken to this couscous recipe, feel free. I know we are having it as part of our dinner tonight, and my husband will probably take a container of it with his lunch tomorrow. I hope you all enjoy the last few days of summer! It is really starting to look and feel just a bit like fall, which is not a bad thing, but for me, it is a bit nostalgic. The daylight is fading earlier in the evenings and there is a bit of a chill in the breeze now, yet the sun is still warm and soft in the afternoons. Have a great weekend!
I am sharing this recipe over at Angie’s Fiesta Friday, co-hosted this week by Loretta @ Safari of the Mind and Natalie @ Kitchen, Uncorked.
Tomato-Pesto Couscous Bowls
Ingredients:
- One package of Near East Couscous Mix (I think the toasted pine nut mix works best for this recipe)
- 1 cup of chopped fresh tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon of prepared pesto (store-bought or homemade)
- 1/2 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese
- fresh basil sprigs for garnish, if desired
Directions:
Prepare the couscous according to the directions on the package. While the couscous is cooking, chop the tomatoes, and measure out the pesto and shredded cheese. When the couscous is cooked, combine all the ingredients. Serve in bowls. May be served warm, at room temperature, or cold out of the refrigerator, if using as a leftover. Enjoy!
Some days, I really crave a good salad to energize my body with fresh, bright ingredients. As a result of my baking craze this past few days, I am in desperate need of a light lunch! (My latest baking adventure includes soft pretzels, which are so good, but still need more practice before they hit the blog). This peach-plum salad works really well, because it is super-easy to make, and it uses the best of late summer fruits. Peaches with honey and lemon juice taste like a heavenly combination to me, and the savory aspect of the walnuts and Feta add depth to the flavor.
Late summer is my favorite time of year to eat peaches, since their flavor and color seems to match the glorious mellow warmth of the September sun. We have had absolutely stunning weather the past couple of days, and I just want to hold onto this as long as possible, because to me, this is the most comfortable weather we get. Cool, misty mornings give way to warm, soft afternoons, which lead to dinners full of fresh fruits and vegetables out on the screened-in porch. Nights are cool, and the breeze coming in the open windows is laden with the sound of crickets and cicadas. The light outside is not so strong as it is in the height of summer, so it is a photographer’s dream.
This salad is so very easy to make, it hardly requires a recipe, and sometimes just a pretty photo and a few words will remind us of a great combination of delicious, healthy ingredients. I have included a recipe below, though it is flexible and can be adjusted easily. I consciously used honey in the dressing, not only because it tastes great with this salad, but also because I have heard that consuming locally-made honey can help with allergies. This is the time of year when I often get seasonal allergies, so I have been trying to incorporate local honey into my meals as often as possible.
If you live in a northern climate like I do, spring takes her sweet time to truly settle in, and winter does not give up without a few fights. We are in such a situation right now, where it is cold, gray, and wet. The only indication that it really is springtime is that the birds are singing loudly and beautifully, and the crocuses are proudly carrying on, despite the cold rain. And I am really grateful for that! However, during this time of year, I often feel depleted of energy and nutrients. The longing for spring and all that it brings is strong, yet we are not quite there yet.
So to remedy the situation, I have been eating this salad for lunch for the past few days, and it is really helping my energy level and my overall feeling of health. Even if greens are not growing in my own garden yet, they are growing somewhere nearby, and fresh greens are appearing at the grocery store more and more as this month progresses. And mandarin oranges have been on sale at the grocery store lately, so the orange zest salad dressing seemed like a good idea. There are so many nutrients in leafy greens and they are so well known, that I don’t feel the need to list them all. The rest of the salad is from staples I like to keep on hand, and though I sometimes take them for granted, these ingredients are full of really good stuff. Dried apricots are known for their potassium and iron content, walnuts for their omega 3s and vitamin E, and roasted pumpkin seeds for their zinc, manganese, and magnesium. And that’s just mentioning a few of the minerals found in these foods.
For me, it can be easy to get sidetracked and just graze on some pretzels and cheese for lunch, so eating this salad has been a boost to my nutrient intake, which helps my energy level and outlook on life. The recipe below is for two servings–feel free to double it or whatever, depending on how many you are making. And just a note–in my photos, the dried apricots look like bacon! (Not that bacon would be bad in this salad–it would probably taste really good!) They are actually organic dried apricots, so they aren’t the bright orange that some of the dried apricots are when they have preservatives to retain their color.
