Pearl Couscous Stirfry

Have you ever heard of Pearl Couscous? I hadn’t up until a few weeks ago. I saw a coworker eating it at the kitchen table at work. I asked, “What kind of grain is that?” “Pearl couscous”, he said. “Would you like to try some?” And try some I did. And then just another spoonful more. Such a yummy, nutty flavor to it!

I liked it so much that I made a point to find some when I went to the grocery store later that week.

Searching the Web and Pinterest, I easily found a bunch of recipes. Tonight, I was inspired by a post from Your Food Life.

Pearl Couscous Stirfry
Serves 2 to 3

Ingredients
1 cup vegetable broth
1/4 cup filtered water
2/3 cup Pearl Couscous
1 tomato
1/2 white onion
6 mushrooms
Shredded cabbage
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 orange bell pepper
1/2 lb ground beef
1 egg
Salt
Pepper
Garlic salt
Parsley
Butter
Olive oil

1. Boil the vegetable broth and water, then add the Pearl Couscous. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Let it cook for about 20 minutes. Mix in a 1/2 tbsp or less of butter once the liquid is almost vaporated.
2. Brown the ground beef on a separate pan, then set aside.

3. Peel the tomato and chop it in the half. Then peel the onion and chop it in half. Blend both ingredients together into a puree.

4. Mix the puree with the ground beef and cook with a drizzle of olive oil for about 3 minutes.

5. Chop remaining veggies and add them to the pan.

6. Once the veggies are almost done, break the egg into a bowl and whisk. Then make a space on the pan and slowly pour in the egg. Wait a minute or two, then mix it in with the rest of the ingredients.

7. Season the beef-veggie stirfry then serve with your delicious Pearl Couscous.

This was a big hit. So glad I made it. 🙂

Roasted Vegetables

Last weekend I went to a really great Argentinian restaurant. Strangely enough, one of the highlights of my meal was the roasted vegetables I took from my boyfriend’s plate. Ever since, I’ve had roasted veggies on the brain. So after a good workout at the gym, I jumped into the kitchen.

Roasted Vegetables
Inspired by The Wednesday Chef

Ingredients

1/2 tomato, peeled and chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
4 baby gold potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small crown of broccoli, chopped
1 Japanese eggplant, peeled and chopped
6 white mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
Sage, rosemary, salt, and pepper
Olive oil

Directions

1. Place veggies, seasonings, and a few drizzles of olive oil in a casserole dish. Roast at 375 degrees F for approximately 45 minutes. Mix every 15 minutes.

Beef & Broccoli and Fried Rice

I’ve always been curious what makes the beef and broccoli sauce so good. The answer was pretty surprising: oyster sauce. Of course, there are other ingredients like soy sauce and sherry, but it’s the oyster sauce that’s important.

Well, I went to the store last night to buy the ingredients for my homemade Chinese dinner and I couldn’t bring myself to buy that oyster sauce. When would I use it again? Long story short, I ended up buying a premade pack of sauce (oyster sauce included).

Beef & Broccoli

Ingredients
1 packet of beef and broccoli sauce
1 pound round cut steak
Chopped green onions
Broccoli
Salt & pepper

Directions

1. Put about half of the sauce and uncooked steak in a large bowl. Leave in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, prepare the onions and broccoli. Chop and saute in a little canola oil, then set aside.

3. Cook your steak as desired. I like mine practically well done. Remove from heat, cut into thin strips. Return to pan with broccoli, green onions, and remaining sauce. Cook just long enough to mix and heat.

Fried Rice

Ingredients

Cooked rice
2 eggs (cooked)
Grated carrots
Grated cabbage
Chopped green onions
Chopped white onion
Chopped white mushrooms
Soy sauce
Red pepper flakes
Garlic powder
Salt & pepper

Directions

1. Coat the bottom of a large pan with a thin layer of canola oil. Crack the eggs and mix in a small bowl, then pour into the pan. Be sure to spread the egg out across the entire pan so it cooks really thin. Set aside.

2. Chop the veggies and saute with a little more canola oil in the same pan you used for the eggs.

3. Add in rice, soy sauce, spices, and eggs. Cook on medium high heat until all ingredients are incorporated.

Welcome to the weekend, everyone. 🙂

Sebzeli Nohut (Chickpeas with Vegetables)

Whether you call them ceci, chickpeas, garbanzos, or nohut…we’re all talking about those yummy fiber and protein packed legumes.

I’ve been hoping to find a new recipe for them and today I managed to find one that is both meatless and Turkish inspired.

Sebzeli Nohut
Original recipe from Almost Turkish

Ingredients
1 can organic chickpeas (drain)
1/2 big onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 cup fineley chopped cabbage
1 cup matchstick carrots
5 baby gold potatos, peeled and grated
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp pepper flakes
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup vegetable stock
salt and pepper

Directions
1. Cook onions and peppers in olive oil in a large, deep pan until soft.

2. Stir in cabbage, carrot, potato, and cumin. Cook for 4-5 minutes.

3. Add tomato paste and stir for another minute.

4. Add chickpeas, salt, blackpepper, pepper flakes, and stock. Add a 1/2 cup of water or less (just enough to cover the chickpeas). Cover and reduce heat to low.
5. Prepare Jasmine rice. Once done, the nohut will also be ready (about 15-20 minutes). Serve together with plain yogurt.

This recipe creates a really subtle but delicious flavor combination. 🙂

Breakfast Taco

I promised myself that I wouldn’t go grocery shopping this week. Mission accomplished. I didn’t think this left me with interesting menu items, but last night I came up with something pretty tasty for being so basic.

That’s right. I made breakfast for dinner again. But this time, I kept the focus on the veggies and less on the fried. Couldn’t resist throwing in a couple pieces of bacon though.

While this basically just an omelet thrown into a lightly fried tortilla, my boyfriend made a simple cooking suggestion that really perfected the overall texture of this meal.

Instead of mixing the sauteed veggies into the eggs, I cooked the veggies around the edge of the pan with eggs in the middle. This helped the veggies to stay a little crisp, which was really nice.