Vegetable Love: B'couscous I Love You

When I told Musty about Susan V's great "Vegetable Love" idea, he said "Oh that's easy - you should make 'B'couscous I love you!'" This fine dish was once known as "Baked Couscous with Pine Nuts and Spinach,"and is a heavily adapted recipe from "Quick Vegetarian Pleasures." It's one of Musty's all time favorites, and at some point, he took to calling it "b'couscous I love you!," so it's a very romantic dish in our house! :)

And actually, even though it's not glamourous or elegant it is a pretty good V-day dish because it's quick (so you've got more time for having fun with your buddy), and it's light (so you don't feel bogged down and yucky afterwards AND you've got room for dessert), and it's got a cute name (so you and your buddy can giggle together), and it's super tasty (so you are both happy!). And of course, it's got more that one veggie in it!


Here's the recipe:
1 cup couscous
1 1/2 cup veg stock (or water)
1/4 tsp salt
2 t olive oil
3 garlic cloves (minced)
1 large onion
1 28-oz can of chopped tomatoes, or 8 tomatoes chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup pine nuts
5 cups loosely packed fresh spinach
pepper to taste


Drain the tomatoes, and reserve about 1/3 c of the juice.


Bring the veg stock to a boil in a medium pot. Once boiling, add the couscous and salt, remove from heat, and cover for about 5 minutes. Then fluff with a fork.


Preheat the oven to 375. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute the garlic and onion until tender. Add the tomatoes and cook for about 10 more minutes, stirring frequently.


Add the couscous to the tomatoes, and then also add the tomato juice, basil, pine nuts, and pepper. Then, working in 2 or 3 batches mix in the spinach until it wilts.


Spread the mixture into a 12x7 baking dish (or something similar). Bake for about 25 minutes.


Maybe you will enjoy it!


To go with the B'couscous I Love You, I also made a salad with loads of goodies: steamed chiogga beets, olives, carrots, red bell pepper, cabbage, hemp seeds... As you can see, I used my heart-shaped cookie cutters to cut the carrots and beets into heart shapes (aren't they pretty!?). Fun! I think a beet salad with heart shaped beet slices would be another fun Vegetable Love entry...


I'm headed down to San Diego for a yoga workshop this weekend... so I probably won't be blogging much. Have a fun weekend!