In my childhood home we ate couscous only in one way. Hand made and steamed over a pot of soup. It was almost impossible to enter our small kitchen when mom would make couscous. In one bowl there was the semolina that mom would wet slowly while stirring so that no clumps would form.Then she ran the semolina grains through a special sieve. Only the couscous grain of the right size would pass through the holes and continue on to the next bowl. The others were returned to the semolina bowl, where in a circular motion mom broke the lumps of semolina and put them back into the sieve. On the stove the couscous soup was cooking, filled with zucchini, squash, potatoes, carrots celery, lots of chickpeas and a handful of turmeric. When all the semolina grains were in the right size mom would place them in a special steam pot, which fit the soup pot, and the couscous would be cooked by the soup steam and colored yellow from the turmeric. In my childhood home they never thought of making couscous salad, but I think they would love it.
Ingredients
Couscous
1 ¼ cups couscous
½ tsp salt
1 TBS olive oil
1 ½ cups boiling water
2 cups yam diced
1 cup herb mix finely chopped (parsley, cilantro, mint or any other you like)
½ cup cranberries
1 pack (3.5 oz) roasted chestnuts
¼ cup pine nuts roasted
2 TBS olive oil
2 TBS fresh lemon juice
1 TBS pomegranate syrup
½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
Heat oven to 400 F. peel yam and dice into ½ X ½ inch cubes. Place on a baking sheet covered with baking paper, spread a little olive oil and salt and roast for 25 min, until tender.
Place couscous grains in a bowl. Add salt, olive oil and boiling water. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand about 5 minutes. Uncover and fluff with a fork.
chop the herbs in a food processor with a metal blade. With a sharp knife chop the chestnuts into small pieces.
Add all ingredients into a big bowl and mix well. Let stand an hour for flavors to absorb.
