Couscous Tabouli

I don't mind the little snippets Channel 72 have in between their kitchen shows. I think they come from Better Homes and Gardens? Anyway, in one segment their cook/chef was cooking a budget BBQ or something, but he made this couscous tabouli.

I originally wrote this post a little while ago, but I clearly didn't press save. I visited my blog this morning and saw that there was a pitiful excuse for a post accompanying the picture, so my apologies to everyone. I'm going to try and rewrite my post, but my memory might be a little fuzzy.

So, I like watching the little Better Homes and Gardens (allegedly) snippets on Channel 72. Some of the recipes don't really appeal, but sometimes there are nice simple recipes that make you think 'I have to try that'.

I love tabouli, but I don't often make it myself. I'm lazy and I really like the flavour balance in the deli stuff. It's yum. This particular tabouli appeals to the lazy part of me because it doesn't require you to soak bulgur or anything like that. It uses couscous as its grain instead. I love couscous and I really had to try this recipe so I could see what the difference was.

It's incredibly easy. Just take 250g of couscous and pour over 250ml boiling water. Cover tightly for five or so minutes and then fluff with a fork. Check to make sure your couscous is ready, because mine wasn't. I found that 250ml of water seemed quite a small amount for the volume of couscous. I'm not sure if my crunchy couscous stemmed from not enough water or not enough cooking time. Once the couscous is ready, add 2 tbs butter and a pinch of salt and combine gently.

Then you chop 2 bunches of flat leaf parsley, 1 bunch of mint, 1 tomato and 1 red onion and mix them all together with the couscous. Dress to taste with lemon juice and olive oil.

I did like this but I did make some errors which impacted on how much I enjoyed it. Firstly, as I said, I undercooked my couscous. It was really hard to move past the hard little grains. It was a stupid mistake. Secondly, I didn't chop my parsley fine enough. I'm not a huge fan of the taste of flat leaf parsley and with the larger cuts the grassy flavour was a bit strong. All the bad things out of the way, it definitely had promise and I will give it another try. It well deserves a second chance.