Monday, August 15, 2011

Rosemary and Red Pepper Couscous


Please forgive me for not posting often this summer.  I appreciate every single reader and comment, but lately I've been out living life and forgetting to come back and write about it.  There must be something about being in a car accident that really makes you appreciate those you love, because my husband and I have maximized every single day this summer.  We've spent so much time hanging out with friends and family and traveling that I started to get concerned that this would turn into a travel blog, so here's a recipe to break things up before I start talking about our most recent road trip.

Couscous.  It's kind of like pasta, but kind of like rice.  It's a quick-cooking starchy side that I think will please most people.  A few weeks ago I got my hands on some Israeli couscous, which is larger than regular couscous. It's about the size of small pearls as opposed to traditional couscous which is like large grains of sand.  You can prepare this recipe with either type of couscous.

I got the idea for this recipe while watering my tiny garden on our deck.  My red pepper plant hasn't yielded much this year.  I don't know if it's the heat or the fact that I've sometimes neglected to fertilize it, but I'm only on my second pepper this season.  I have plenty of herbs, though, so I opted to use fresh rosemary in this recipe.

I love the smell of rosemary and the red pepper adds a subtle sweetness.  My husband doesn't like any type of peppers, but he happily ate this side dish and even packed the leftovers for work the next day.  My favorite part is that it smells fresh and gourmet, but it cooks fast and can be served hot, room temperature or even cold.

Rosemary and Red Pepper Couscous
a Keeley original
serves 4

1 1/2 cups couscous (I used Israeli, you can use regular couscous)
1 Tablespoon butter
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup diced fresh red pepper
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Saute red pepper in butter until slightly softened, about three minutes. Add garlic and rosemary and saute for another minute.

Add dry couscous to the pan.  Saute until golden brown, about three minutes.

Pour in chicken stock and bring to a boil.

Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer until liquid is absorbed and couscous is tender, about ten minutes.  Stir occasionally.

Serve hot, room temperature or cold.

2 comments:

  1. Kleber and I have been enjoying a lot of time together this summer...it's been wonderful! Like you said, it's so nice to live life instead of constantly documenting it :) The couscous looks delish! Honestly, I rarely have it, unless I go out for Greek. But I do feel like switching things up a bit..there's only so much rice and pasta I can take :/

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  2. Well I'm glad I''m not the only whose been sparcely blogging. Sometimes, life just gets in the way (and in my case it was life and harry potter, but I digress). But I'm going to try this, I've got a rosemary plant in my window, and a jar of roasted red peppers in my fridge. YUM!

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