Versatile Vegan Couscous

Eat it hot, it it warm, eat it room temp, eat it cold as a salad, eat one portion a day for a week. I DGAF what you do with this, just make it and love it. 

I’m not even a couscous guy—fuck that sandy mess—but this version rocks harder than Metallica right after they dropped Ride the Lightning. 

Ingredients:

2 red bell peppers (any color will do), diced

1 bunch scallions, sliced

1 C green olives, chopped

½ C dried cranberries 

1 15 oz. can kidney beans, rinsed

1 C mixed nuts (use whatever you have and roast them at 350F for 10 mins)

½ C red seedless grapes, halved

3 T olive oil 

1 t tahini paste

¼ t crushed red pepper

¼ t smoked paprika

¼ t cumin

¼ sumac (lemon zest if you don’t have sumac)

Punch of salt

Juice of 1 lemon

1 C couscous

1 ½ C water

Instructions:

1. Combine the peppers, scallions, olives, cranberries, kidney beans, nuts, and grapes, in a huge freakin bowl.

2. Whisk 2T olive oil, tahini, pepper, paprika, cumin, sumac, salt, and lemon juice together until fully combined and it looks like a dressing. 

3. Pour the dressing over the ingredients in the bowl. Stir it up, and let the ingredients hang out together for a little bit.

4. Boil 1C of water in a small saucepan. Add the dried couscous, stir it up. Cook on the lowest setting for 5 minutes. Add the remaining 1T of olive oil, to the couscous and fluff it up with a fork.

5. Now, you can do whatever you want with it: mix it up, top the couscous with the salad…the world is yours