I declare myself an absolut fan of cous-cous. And of arab food. And since it had been a while since I didn’t eat, this past week I’ve had it more than twice. Last week with my dad, I prepared this delicious cous-cous and grilled aubergines with Tzatziki sauce. Yesterday I made the cous-cous again for my friends and again sucess!
It’s such a simple salad to make, with a different taste and aroma of what we’re used to having. And the aubergines are the perfect side-dish with the salad. The Tzatziki sauce, usually used in Kebabs, matches amazing with vegetables as well, it enhances a simple salad if you use it as dressing as well. So here you go, three easy, delicious vegetarian recipes with the taste of a different culture.
Let’s go recipe by recipe:
Tabouleh.
Ingredients.
- 300 gr cous-cous and same amount of water
- 2 teaspoons of butter
- 2 Tb raisins
- 2 Tb pine-nuts
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 avocado
- 1 cucumber
- 1 white onion
- the juice of 2-3 lemons
- olive oil
- parsley
- mint or spearmint
- salt and freshly ground pepper
Preparation. You can click on the images to enlarge.
- Take the water to a boil with a little bit of olive oil.
- When it starts boiling, add the cous-cous and cover.
- Leave for 1 minute at high heat and the lower for 3 minutes.
- Uncover and add the butter (or olive oil) and move with a fork th separate well all the grains. The cous-cous is now ready.
- Chop the onion finely and take to a pan with some oil. Add the pine-nuts after a few minutes and the raisins (previously soaked in warm water).
- Add the cous-cous to a bowl. Add the onion with pine-nuts and raisins while still warm. Move well.
- Chop the tomatoes, cucumber and avocado into small dices. Add to the cous-cous.
- Chop the mint and parsley and add to the salad. Be generous, this will add a lot of taste.
- Finally, add the lemon juice, some olive oil and salt and pepper.
- Taste and if it’s goood, take covere to the fridge for about an hour before serving. This will concentrate all the flavours.
- The Tabouleh is ready to eat!!
Grilled aubergines with Tzatziki sauce.
Ingredients.
- 1 big aubergine/eggplant
- 1 whole peeled lemon
- salt and freshly ground pepper
For the Tzatziki sauce:
- 1 greek yogurt personal size
- 1 cucumber
- 2 grated garlic cloves or very finely chopped
- mint/spearmint
- the juice of 1 lemon
- vinager
- olive oil
- salt and freshly groung pepper
Preparation. You can click on the images to enlarge.
- Cut the eggplant into thin slices and leave in water with salt for 30 minutes.
The eggplant has a very spongy texture because between its cells there are many air pockets. This causes that when frying, it absorbs a lot of oil. If we want to prevent this from happening, one can: pre-cook them in a microwave oven or soak them in salty water. The salt causes a release of the inner moisture from the cells into the air pockets, reducing its sponginess. The salt also causes a reduction in our perception of the bitterness some aubergines/eggplants have.
Meanwhile, let’s prepare the Tzatziki sauce:
- Add the yoghurt to a small bowl.
- Add the grated or finely chopped garlic.
- Peel the cucumber, grate it and add to the sauce.
- Add about 1 tablespoon of chopped mint.
- Finally, add the lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.
If you wish to make the eggplants with the Tabouleh, then once the cous-cous is ready:
- Remove all excess liquid from the eggplant and place them in a grilling pan with olive oil.
- Remove all excess oil and add some salt.
- Peel the lemon and cut into slices, removing all the seeds.
- Alternate slices of aubergines with lemon and pour the Tzatziki sauce on top. Delicious!!!!
