Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon paprika (use smoked if you like the smokey flavoured edge)
- 350 ml chicken stock or 350 ml vegetable stock
-
- good pinch saffron strand
- 6 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced
- 225g couscous
- 1 lemon, juice and zest of
- 2 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
- 50 g pine nuts, toasted
- Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in large pan. add the cumin, garlic, coriander and paprika and fry over a gentle heat for 1 min, stirring.
- Add the stock and saffron and bring to the boil. Add the spring onion and then pour in the couscous in a steady stream and give it a quick stir.
- Cover the pan with a tight fitting lid, remove from the heat and set aside for 5 minutes, to allow the grains to swell and absorb the stock.
- If you are serving this warm, stir in the rest of the oil and the remaining ingredients now. Otherwise allow the couscous to cool and chill in the fridge for 1 hour before adding the other ingredients for a tasty cold couscous salad.
Method
Don't blame me for the slightly camp name of this dish, it's all Ainsley's fault. This recipe which I have been making for years is from a book I have owned for ages - Ainsley's Barbecue Bible - and I must confess that is it a most excellent book. There are a host of recipes in there that have become staples throughout the summer months, and this year I might even write them up. I feel slightly embarrassed about owning the book cos it is so 80's, but it is reliable, I will give him that.
Anyway, enough of the confessional this was a winter make, to use for lunch while home schooling the Youngest (who likes couscous) and good it was too, having a warming heat about it that was much needed in theis miserable locked-down February when it was made. Try it winter or summer, its delicious