Enter your email & we’ll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from us every week! By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Hurry the Food Up. We love coming up with couscous lunch ideas because couscous is just so easy to prepare and provides the perfect canvas for a multitude of other flavours. You don’t even need to cook couscous really- just cover it in boiling water and let it fluff up of its own accord. Previously, we’ve done a couscous and pear salad and a lentil tabbouleh made with couscous instead of bulgar wheat. Both of those went down a treat! For this couscous bowl, we use smoky paprika, fragrant rosemary and tangy capers as seasoning. Saffron is optional, if you’re feeling a bit lush! It’s drizzled with a minty yogurt sauce, to add a fresh, creamy bite to your bowl!
Mediterranean couscous bowl – of couscous it’s healthy!
I was really scraping the bottom of the barrel with that pun! So moving swiftly onwards, how do we make this a healthy couscous recipe? We focus on the usual suspects: fresh veggies, protein, fat and fibre! Fresh veggies add plenty of important nutrients, helping you get your 5 a day. In our couscous bowl, you’ll get leeks, pepper and cherry tomatoes. Protein is important for general well being and muscle maintenance, as well as helping to fill you up! This dish contains 25g protein per serving. Fibre is important for many reasons: it regulates your digestive system, lowers cholesterol and helps control blood sugar levels. Like protein, fibre helps you to feel full. This dish contains 18g fibre per serving, thanks again to all those veggies! Dishes that are high in protein and fibre also tend to be good for weight loss, because they are very filling. So for the calories you eat, you will be kept full for longer than if you ate the equivalent amount but with less protein and fibre. Check out our vegetarian weight loss e-book if you want to learn more about healthy weight loss as a veggie! In terms of fat, we like to keep saturated fat levels low, and include a healthy amount of unsaturated fats, which are a really important part of your diet!
A lovely lunch or a scrummy side!
A simple couscous recipe like this you can whip up in no time and use in many different ways. Double or triple the quantities and take it to work with you for a quick and easy lunch. You could mix up some of the yogurt dressing in advance, but we wouldn’t recommend leaving that for more than a couple of days. You could also serve it as a couscous side dish, alongside something like this Mexican bean stew! If you want a gluten free version, you could replace couscous with quinoa or buckwheat! This is a vegetarian couscous recipe but for a vegan version, switch the yogurt for soy yogurt. There’s a couscous bowl recipe for everyone!
