Wednesday, April 13, 2011

CousCous with apricots and almonds

I want to announce to my loyal readers I am now the Executive Chef at Raw Satisfaction cooking school in San Francisco. I hope that you are learning from my web site and that those of you who can will have the chance to pick up some tips directly.



This is a very common Cous Cous preparation and I don’t know where I had it first. I do know I loved it. It works as a base for lamb stew or it just lovely on it’s own as a light lunch

1/2-cup couscous (Acini di Pepe works)
1 small onion, chopped
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1-cup hot water
6 dry apricots soak the apricots in water overnight, cut in small pieces
2 tablespoons pistachios, crushed out of the shell
2 tablespoons almonds, sliced toasted
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
Salt
Pepper

Saute the onion with olive oil. Add the couscous and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the water, apricots, salt and pepper. Cook for about 8-10 minutes over medium-low heat. Turn the heat off, cover the lid. Let it rest for 20 minutes and at the end, all the water will evaporate. Toss in the pistachios, almonds and mint. Stir with a fork and serve while still warm.

Makes 2 servings at 390 calories each. This makes it a great base to serve with a small amount of chicken or lamb stew.

I don’t know how much nutrition you expect from pasta with a few nuts but it does have over 30% of the vitamin E you need.

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