Moroccan cuisine · Dough, Pasta & Rice

Seven-Vegetable Couscous

Triple-steamed couscous with carrots, pumpkin, zucchini, cabbage, turnips and chickpeas in a golden saffron broth.

Ingredients · for 6 servings

• 500 g couscous
• 3 carrots
• 300 g pumpkin
• 2 zucchini
• 1/4 white cabbage
• 2 turnips
• 1 can chickpeas (250 g drained weight)
• 3 tomatoes
• 2 onions
• 1 pinch saffron threads
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• Salt, pepper

Instructions

1. Peel the carrots, turnips and pumpkin and cut into thumb-thick wedges, cut the zucchini into thick pieces, the cabbage into wedges, cut the onions into eighths and dice the tomatoes.
2. Sauté the onions and tomatoes in 3 tbsp olive oil in the bottom of the couscoussier for 5 min, add the saffron, salt and pepper, and top up with 1.5 l water.
3. Add the carrots, turnips and cabbage and simmer uncovered for 25 min, then add the pumpkin, zucchini and drained chickpeas and cook for another 15 min.
4. Rub the couscous between your fingers with the remaining olive oil and a little water until every grain is coated — this keeps it from clumping later.
5. Steam the couscous in the steamer basket over the broth three times for 15 min each, sprinkling it with a little salted water in between and fluffing it with a fork.
6. Mound the couscous into a hill on a large platter, arrange the vegetables around it in a wreath, and ladle over the hot broth.