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I’m a bit of a fan of cous cous. It’s a wholegrain, very filling, and it takes just 5 minutes to prepare.  It can be used in many ways including in salads. I love the way it sticks to the other ingredients like fairy dust, and it instantly makes a simple salad into a main course.

I forgot to add the pinenuts and basil to mine, but added it in the recipe – they’re important.  I was obviously a little scatterbrained while making this up!

I used Julia’s technique of caramelising the onions, as per her caramelised onion tartlets recipe - it worked perfectly! I used to use a similar method, but never rested the onions throughout. The addition of this step makes the onions gooey and delicious. So a big thank you to Julia! 

Also – a shout out to Heinz Pure NZ for making THE coolest frozen peas packaging in the world. Of course, I’m always going to be partial to a bit of Kiwi humour (my adorable husband is a kiwi) but it’s not just the witty words – it’s the clear pack that makes me very happy. Why? Because I can see that I am just getting peas, and nothing else! I’ve noticed a growing trend of companies adding a little water to the frozen peas to bulk up the weight. I don’t want to sound like a trashy Today Tonight ‘journalist’, but seriously: vegetable packers – Cut it out.  Ooh! Just checked out the website – very nice Heinz! They have a bio of the farmer who grew the vegetables and a gallery of the actual farm! Now that is slick marketing!

And a quick word on vinegar – Vinegar is a really good way of injecting extra flavour into foods without adding salt and oil. It still contains a fair whack of sugars, but it’s not as calorific as oil! So, I use it quite a bit to enhance my meals.

Ingredients

2/3 cup couscous
2/3 cup water
1/2 chicken stock cube

1/2 small butternut pumpkin
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 big handfuls of leafy greens – baby spinach, lettuce, baby beetroot leaves, endive, rocket etc
1 chicken breast
1/2 Tomato, diced
1 spanish onion
1 brown onion
handful of pinenuts, dry-toasted in a fry pan
handful of basil leaves, ripped.

Malt and Balsamic Vinegar
Pepper
Olive Oil

Method

1.Chop up the chicken into inch sized bits and marinade in about a 1/4 cup of malt and balsamic vinegar while doing everything else.
2. Cut the pumpkin into thick slices, toss with oil and pepper and put in a preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until a little brown
3. finely slice the onion, reserve a little handful of the spanish onion
4. Put the onions slices in a pan with a little oil and heat quickly and stir around for a few minutes, then take off the heat and pull them all into one corner. Then repeat approximately 4 times until the onions are very dark brown and sweet and gooey.
5. cook the couscous as per packet directions with the added chicken stock cube.
6. Boil the frozen peas and drain
7. Drain the chicken of the vinegar and panfry the chicken until cooked but still tender.

8. Put everything in a bowl, with a drizzle of oil, balsamic vinegar and a crack of pepper and toss carefully.