I came home from work today and thought to myself... what shall I do with the huge load of veggies I got yesterday from our CSA. Itching to try out a new recipe I opened up The Garden of Vegan cookbook by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. I decided to try the balsamic grilled veggies with couscous.
Recipe:
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 eggplant, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 Tbs olive oil
1 cup veg. stock
1 cup couscous
1- 14oz. can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs tomato paste
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp dry basil
2 Tbs capers (optional)
Confusingly, the veggies are roasted and not grilled as the title suggests, but whatever... So I had most of these ingredients on hand, but I made a few substitutions. I don't keep canned tomatoes around because I'm sensitive to high acid red tomatoes. I did however have fresh low acid yellow tomatoes so I diced up 4 medium ones. I also omitted the tomato paste. Rather than dry basil I used fresh. Also, something I've never understood is that the ratio of liquid to couscous is always equal in recipes. Maybe it's just the kind I'm buying, but 2 cups liquid to 1 cup couscous seems to produce better results. To give the meal more substance I added a can of white beans. Oh, and I didn't have any capers...
--- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In foil lined pan, lay out pepper, zucchini, eggplant and onion. Drizzle with oil and stir. Roast 15-20 minutes, or until veggies are browned. (My veggies were well cooked before they browned!) In small saucepan heat vegetable broth until boiling. Remove from heat, add couscous, stir and let rest. Fluff couscous to prevent sticking. In large pan stir together tomato, vinegar, sweetener, basil, (beans) and roasted veggies. Cook 5-8 minutes. Serve over couscous.
Thoughts... Good, but the sweetener was a bit off-putting. I really don't know why it was added. I would this again, but I would make a few more changes. I think some mushrooms would be a nice addition. Re-hydrate a 1/2 cup dry mushrooms in 2 cups water and you'll have your couscous cooking liquid too.
3 years ago
1 comment:
Hey chicky:
Thanks for putting a link to my blog! Regarding your post, I make "grilled" veggies a lot using olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, crushed garlic and rosemary. I use parchment paper instead of aluminum foil. Parchment paper never sticks and often times i can reuse it a few times before having to throw it out. I just got The Joy of Vegan Baking so i have actually been busy making sweet treats lately! Gotta go now - must eat!
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