Today on The Stay At Home Chef
I'm showing you how to cook couscous.
Couscous is one of my family's favorite side dishes.
Today I'm not only gonna teach you how to cook couscous,
but I'm also gonna give you 4 different variations that are super flavorful and just as easy.
It's important to know that there are 2 different kinds of couscous: you have a Moroccan style couscous and an Israeli style couscous,
also known as pearl couscous.
They're both made from semolina flour, but the Moroccan style couscous is very small and fine,
almost like a grain.
An Israeli style or pearl couscous you can see is a lot thicker, and this couscous requires a little bit of a different cooking process.
These are both plain and yellow in color, but you can find couscous in multiple colors,
so feel free to mix and match and figure out which one works best for your family,
and which one's your favorite.
To cook couscous you need a saucepan that has a fitted lid, but we'll use the lid in just a little bit.
To start you'll need 2 1/2 cups of water, or you can use chicken or vegetable broth.
Season the water with 1/2 teaspoon of salt,
and add in 1 tablespoon of either olive oil or butter, and we're gonna bring this to a boil.
Once it's boiling turn off the heat and pour in 2 cups of couscous.
Give it a quick stir just to make sure that all of the couscous is submerged in the liquid,
and pop the lid on and let it just sit here for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes remove the lid and fluff it with a fork.
Couscous is just ridiculously easy to make.
Now let's get started on flavor variations starting with an olive oil garlic couscous.
This time I'm going to add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the saucepan before adding in the water.
Heat that over a medium-high heat and then add in 1 tablespoon of minced garlic.
Sauté this for about 60 seconds to infuse the olive oil with that garlic flavor and take the bite out of the garlic.
Then we'll pour in 2 1/2 cups of water and bring this to a boil.
Don't forget to add in your 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Then just like before once it comes to a boil turn off the heat and stir in 2 cups of couscous.
Cover it with a lid and let it stand for 5 minutes.
For the next variation I'm going to show you how to make an herb chicken couscous using chicken broth and some spices.
This time we'll pour in 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth, and instead of olive oil we'll use 1 tablespoon of butter.
While it's coming to a boil add in 1/2 teaspoon of salt,
1/2 teaspoon of onion powder,
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder,
1/4 teaspoon of dried parsley,
1/4 teaspoon of dried rosemary,
1/4 teaspoon of dried thyme,
and then just 1/8 teaspoon of dried sage.
Once it's boiling turn off the heat and stir in 2 cups of couscous.
Pop the lid on and let stand for 5 minutes.
A Mediterranean flavored couscous is super similar.
This time i've gone back to water and olive oil,
then I'll use 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and onion powder,
and 1/2 teaspoon of dried rosemary,
then 1/4 teaspoon each of dried oregano, garlic powder, and turmeric,
and then I like to add in some warmer flavors with 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin,
and just a pinch of ground cinnamon.
Then just like the others stir in two cups of couscous,
turn off the heat,
pop the lid on and let stand 5 minutes.
For our last variation we'll make a parmesan couscous,
and this time we'll use Israeli or pearl style couscous, they go by both names.
All of these variations can be made using pearl couscous, but with a couple slight variations,
starting with increasing the liquid to 3 cups,
we'll use butter again instead of olive oil, though you can really use either,
I'm sure you noticed I'm using chicken broth instead of water, which I prefer.
Add in your 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
This time keep your heat on as you add in the 2 cups of couscous,
because we're going to simmer this over a medium heat uncovered for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes the couscous will have absorbed a lot of the liquid, but not quite all of it.
At this point you can turn off the heat, pop on a lid and let it stand for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes remove the lid and we're going to stir in 3/4 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese,
and 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper.
Just stir this in until the cheese is melted, and that's it.
Couscous is one of the easiest side dishes,
and you can see it's also easy to customize the flavor and change things up,
So feel free to mix and match and figure out what works best for your family.
Thanks for watching.
You can find the full written recipe along with all of the variations in the video description.
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