LOW CALORIE EASY MOROCCAN COUSCOUS
Couscous is a traditional Moroccan dish and one of my favorite comfort food. I am sharing a fast and EASY VERSION way to do it. It’s actually a very balanced and healthy dish that you can make with loads of veggies (carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, turnips, celery) and your choice of protein (chicken, lamb, meatballs, chickpeas… or all of them lol). I love it with spicy sausages aka merguez (which is high in fat) so to balance and be conscious of the calories, I chose to combine it with chicken breast.
Nutrition Per Serving
Calories: 520kcal | Carbohydrates: 68g | Protein: 35g | Fat: 15g
Ingredients
- 3 spicy beef/lamb sausages aka merguez
- 210 g chicken breast or skinless chicken thigh
- 200 g carrots
- 250 g green cabbage
- 200 g celery
- 200 g turnip
- 160 g whole wheat couscous, dry
- 30 g raisins
- 1 cube chicken stock
- 1 tbsp ras el hanout
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- salt to taste
- Harissa (optional)
Video
Instructions
- In a big pot, fry all the spices and tomato paste with a spray of oil for few min to bring out their flavours.
- Add in first the vegetables that take longer to cook such as carrots and radish cut in big chunks with boiling water.
- Add in the chicken and cook on low medium heat for 30min.
- Add the zucchini, celery and cabbage and cook another 30min at least.
- In the meantime, cook the semolina following the package instructions or by adding a 1.5 ratio of boiling water (I like to cook with the vegetable broth instead) with salt , then cover. All the liquid should be absorbed by the grains. I like to add raisins on top.
- At last, pan fry the spicy sausage and prick them with a fork for them to release some oil.
- I like to grill the meat in the oil released from the spicy sausages to provide it a nice colour and spicy flavor. You can add some of the spices used from the broth as well.
- Assemble the couscous, vegetables and meat in a big plate.
- Serve with harissa and enjoy!
Notes
Ideally use chicken legs or chicken thigh with bone and slow cook them to make the broth more flavourful. Â
