What is Couscous? How do you make it?

The couscous itself is like a ground wheat. Like hard little gritty things. It's super easy to make - 1 cup couscous to 1 cup boiling water with a bit of oil in it. Stand for 5 minutes off heat, stir in a little butter and voila! Obviously from there only your imagination will limit you as to what you do with it next.

Couscous is a wonderful, versatile pasta, made of tiny grains of dough that are steamed. It hails from Morocco and northern Algeria, and is a staple throughout North Africa. It can be served as a breakfast cereal, dressed as a salad, and sweetened for a dessert. But in it's most common use, it accompanies a stew or savory sauce, much as rice does in other cultures. Most couscous is made of wheat flour, but there are varieties made of barley, corn, and even ground acorn meal.

There are hundreds of recipes to choose from online. But why not start your search with these recipes from Ochef.com?

Mushroom and White Bean Stew Over Couscous

Poached Salmon with Vegetable Couscous

Green Pepper Couscous

Lamb with Couscous

Couscous with Mergez Sausage

Warm-Weather Couscous

Tunisian Couscous Salad

Couscous with Chicken, Almonds, and Squash

Couscous with Asparagus and Toasted Pistachio Vinaigrette

Sweet Couscous

Couscous is a tiny pasta often mistaken as a grain. Usually you had hot broth to the couscous and let it stand covered until tender. The box will give you the full directions on how to prepare it. I love it as it makes a quick and easy side dish.

It's basically a middle eastern pasta that is very similar to the texture of rice...kinda.

You can buy it in the section of the grocery store where you buy pasta and rice. I buy the plain stuff, then add my own flavorings. Or just cook it in chicken broth for flavor.

It's a good substitute for rice...though not really pasta in some dishes...you can't put marinara over it! Definitely has it's own unique taste. I think it is made out of some kind of wheat I buy the instant...the real stuff takes forever to cook.

FROM WIKIPEDIA...

"Couscous or kuskus as it is known in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya (pronounced /ˈkuːskuːs/ in the US, /ˈkʊskʊs/ in the UK; Berber Seksu - Arabic: كسكس‎, called maftoul in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories) is a dish consisting of spherical granules made by rolling and shaping moistened semolina wheat and then coating them with finely ground wheat flour. The finished grains are about 1 mm in diameter before cooking. The Levantine variant often misquoted as Israeli, is about twice the diameter and made of hard wheat instead of semolina.[2] Traditional couscous requires considerable preparation time and is usually steamed. In many places, a more processed quick-cook couscous is available and is particularly valued for its short preparation time."

Couscous is a wheat based product that is the middle eastern equivalent of rice as a side dish. Wheat is degerminated to remove the bran, leaving the semolina, which is coated lightly with flour.

It is very easy to cook and I find it is very handy for camping because of this. It is the primary ingredient in tabouli, which is made with couscous, mint, lemon juice, oil and diced tomatoes. You can buy it in a box with the mint already in it.

What Is Couscous

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couscous

It's roughly similar to pasta. I just buy it at the store and cook according to the package directions. I've never made it from scratch.

Tiny little pearls of semolina pasta. Add boiling liquid, cover and let sit about 5 minutes. It's delightful.

In the event it's a fruit they have seeds, otherwise it's a vegetable. And vegetables are usually grown in the ground while fruits are grown in trees.

Fruits. Bananas are my favorite. btw did you know that tomatoes are the #1 selling fruits? true beans