Vegan Chickpea & Mixed Vegetable Sauce with Couscous

 

This vegan chickpea and mixed vegetable sauce with couscous is now a firm family favourite.

This quick, easy and delicious dish is loved by my youngest child Alexander (Oliver is the fussy one and only like the couscous) and is a regular dish I rustle up midweek (Oliver has his with a side salad and vegan fingers).

I’ve actually named this meal a ‘lazy dish’ because I simply pour the dry couscous into a heatproof bowl, cover it with boiling water then place a plate on top, allowing the water to be absorbed and cooking these tiny balls of semolina (I picked this tip up in my uni days).

No cooking, it takes no time at all and is absolutely hassle-free. Yay!

I hope you love this couscous dish as much as we do and of course do go ahead and add chilli, Tabasco, hot sauce, spices etc if you fancy giving it a little kick. I keep family recipes low on spice to please the picky eaters.

Please, as always, let me know if you make it or any of my other recipes as I always love hearing from you!

Ingredients:

Serves 4

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups of cous cous
• 1 courgette, chopped into small chunks
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic glove, finely chopped
• 1 green, red and yellow pepper, diced
• 2 cans of tinned, cooked chickpeas (to make life easier).
• 1 tin of canned sweetcorn, drained and rinsed
• 1 vegan stock cube
• sprinkle of sea salt and pepper
• Coriander, torn

 

Method:

In a medium pan add the chickpeas to boiling water and boil up. Drain and rinse again and leave to one side. This helps thoroughly clean them (even if they are tinned) and reduces the gas, absorbing some of the complex sugars which cause gas. It’s why you should soak dry beans the night before too.

In a medium pan pour half the olive oil. Once hot but not burning, add the courgette which takes the longest to cook. Stir for a few minutes. While it’s cooking, pour the couscous into a heat proof bowl and pour with the same volume of boiling water. Place a heat proof plate or pan top over the top, covering it. Release after a few minutes to find it’s cooked through, absorbing all the water.

Once the courgettes are becoming golden, add the rest of the oil and the onions, garlic and peppers and stir.

Add the sweetcorn and stock cube. Stir.

Season with a little salt and pepper.

Plate up and garnish with the coriander leaves.

Yummy!

Delicious and nutritious, this dish is packed full of folate, Vitamin K, zinc, copper, selenium, manganese, Vitamin C, choline, B6, protein and fibre!

Bon Appetit!

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