Mediterranean Couscous

This is a nice and easy spring dish that can be made very quickly with very minimal packaging. If you can pick up couscous from a bulk or zero waste store, everything else is pretty much lose vegetables. I've been enjoying it on these sunny lunchtimes. I used the vegetables below to give it the Mediterranean feel; however, it can be adapted depending on what you have. You can easily swap out one vegetable for another.

Ingredients: (4 people)

• olive oil (glass bottle)
• onion (2 small or 1 medium)
• carrot (2 medium)
• celery (1 stick)
• aubergine (1 medium)
• bell pepper (2 medium or 1 large)
• courgette (2 medium or 3 small)
• spices (smoked paprika, cumin, cayenne pepper)
• lose couscous (from bulk or zero waste store) (60g per person)
• stock cube (your choice of flavour)
• salt and pepper

Method:

Finely chop the onion, celery and carrot and fry on a medium heat in olive oil until tender.

Add the other vegetables in order depending on which needs more time to cook (aubergine, bell pepper then courgette).

Sprinkle your favourite spices and herbs (I go for smoked paprika, cumin and oregano).

Cover and leave to cook on a low heat for a while mixing from time to time. The veggies should be soft (to your taste) but not fall apart.

Measure out the couscous into a large bowl. Boil a kettle of water and pour it in until you cover all the couscous with about 1cm of water. Crumble a stock cube into it and mix it around until the couscous has doubled in size and is nice and fluffy.

Dress the couscous with a drizzle of good quality olive oil, salt and pepper before giving it a final mix.

You can either serve the couscous and vegetables side by side or mix them together for an easy packed lunch, or even layer them in your lunch box if you prefer.

TOP TIP: I usually pair this dish with a simple leaf and tomato salad dressed with extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Enjoy!