Tunisian Vegetable Couscous

This is a traditional Tunisian recipe for a classic dish of couscous cooked with chickpeas, beans, mixed vegetables, fruit and herbs for a very tasty and rich accompaniment or vegetarian dish.

Ingredients:

1kg couscous
250g dried chickpeas, soaked over night
2 large onions, quartered and thickly sliced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp pimenton (or paprika)
1 tsp saffron
2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of cayenne pepper
generous pinch of ground ginger
1 dessert spoon harissa
500g courgettes
2 medium aubergines (eggplants)
6 artichoke hearts
500g carrots
500g turnips
500g shelled broad (fava) beans
250g raisins
1 butternut squash
6 ripe tomatoes
1 generous handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 generous handful coriander leaves, chopped olive oil

Method:

 Rinse the chickpeas and set in the saucepan part of a steamer. Add 3l of water and bring to a boil. Remove any froth as it raises to the surface then add the onion, garlic and spices.

Prepare the vegetables and cut into roughly equal-sized pieces. Chickpeas in Europe an the US are not as fresh as they are in Africa (there they will typically take 40 minutes to cook) and you may need to simmer them for 90 minutes or more, until soft. The root vegetables will take 30 minutes to cook and you should add the carrots and turnips (along with the harissa) half an hour before the chickepeas are done. Fifteen minutes later add the remainder of the vegetables as well as the salt, and raisins (reserve the broad beans). About 8 minutes before the end of the cooking time add the broad beans, parsley and coriander.

As soon as the second batch of vegetables has been added oil and butter a bowl and place the couscous to steam. Once the couscous is ready spoon onto a large serving tray. Make a well into the centre of the couscous and ladle the vegetables into this. Garnish with toasted, slivered, almonds if desired.

If you are unable to find the couscous and  the Harissa you can purchase it online from here: