Why not? – Spaghetti squash with artichoke pesto
Jun 8th
Perchè no? – Zucca spaghetti con pesto ai carciofini
Crushing these gorgeous baby artichokes into a pesto broke my heart. I have always wanted to make artichoke pesto but never really managed to turn the artichokes into a paste. They’re so cute and delicious as hearts that really putting them through a mixer, is something I hate to do. Today, I got the courage to do it. Here, we got something different and quite delicious. Honestly, I am not sure I will have the courage to to this again. I simply love to bite into an artichoke heart, I love the crunchy bite, it’s that simple. You could use this pesto on pasta of course, or as a sauce for grilled meats…or even to spread it on some country bread.
When you’re eating spaghetti squash prepared this way, you almost forgot, it’s not pasta. I undercooked the squash to get a crunchy bite, to get the “al dente” feeling. I loved this pesto. Now for the vegan crowd, you can omit the parmesan and add more walnuts. I use very little parmesan to enhance this pesto a tiny bit. You don’t want to add too much cheese either and overpower the natural delicious flavor of the artichokes.
This pesto tends to be lighter than regular basil/pine nuts pesto, its texture is more dense too, so I added a few tablespoons of water to make it creamier.
I am flying tomorrow for France, to go see my father who had a stroke last December, so I will try to post a few local recipes, in the meantime, have a nice and colorful June.
Ingredients for 2 as a main course
- 1 large spaghetti squash
- 1 lb artichokes, trimmed and cleaned
- 1/2 cup parsley
- 1/2 cup basil
- 2 tbs raw unsalted walnuts
- 1 garlic clove, crushed + 1 chopped
- 2 tbs parmesan (optional)
- 3 tbs olive oil
- water
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cut the squash lengthwise, wrap in parchment paper and cook in a pre-heated oven at 400F for about 45 minutes to an hour.
Remove seeds first, then the spaghetti pulp. Set aside and keep warm. Save eight artichokes quarters for decoration
Heat up a pan, add the crushed garlic, stir and add baby artichokes cut in quarters. Adjust with salt and pepper, add 2 tbs white wine, and cover, decrease heat and let cook until tender. Let it cool.
For the pesto, mix artichokes with all other ingredients a mixer. Adjust with water if the pesto is too thick.
Add pesto to the spaghetti squash and mix well using your hands, to coat the squash with the pesto. Serve with an extra tablespoon of pesto on top and four artichokes quarters on each plate.
Mango-Tango – Mango pudding with coconut milk and raspberries
Jun 3rd
Mango-Tango – Pudding de mangues au lait de coco et fraises
Here is a refreshing pudding for the summer, filled with fruits and exotic flavors. My lovely neighbor Rui gave me this mango pudding a couple of months ago and I fell in love with it. This is an Asian dessert, served in many Chinese or Indonesian restaurants. It’s usually topped with condensed milk. Of course, there are many recipes, some of them use condensed milk, some others coconut milk, some add mango pieces inside the pudding…so there are a lot of variations to this dessert. The last time I had one of those mango puddings was at a Chinese restaurant, and it was topped with condensed milk. What a delight!
This pudding is creamy in the inside, so if you like it more gelatinous and hard, add more agar-agar (or gelatin). Instead of condensed milk I poured coconut milk that I sweetened with a tiny touch of sugar. So for those who like coconut, please try it, it’s such a wonderful combination. I ran into so many people who don’t like coconut lately, how is that possible? I thought coconut was like chocolate, one of those things that is universally loved. I was wrong.
If you want to make this dessert vegan, instead of condensed milk, use coconut milk and agar agar instead of gelatin, it will work perfectly fine.
I am due for my bi-yearly trip to France visiting my parents. I will try to post something before I leave on June 8, if not then I will post new recipes while I am there. I am so excited to get all the new summer fruits, and hopefully get lots of fruity recipes.
Ingredients for 6-7
- 2 large and well ripe mangoes, peeled and cut in pieces
- 1 2/3 cups evaporated milk
- 3 packs of gelatin powder (or the equivalent of agar agar) dissolved in water
- 1/3 cups agave nectar
- 1 cup coconut milk (for topping) + sugar to taste
- 1 cup fresh raspberries
Preparation
Puree mangoes with a condensed blender and place in a large container. Mix condensed milk with agave nectar, and heat it up but do not boil. Dissolve gelatin powder in 4 tbs warm water. Add gelatin to the milk mixture. Mix well. Pour milk into the mango recipient. Mix well. If you want to add fresh mango pieces, add them at this stage.
Divide the mango mixture to small glass containers. Place in the refrigerator overnight.
Un-mold pudding in plates, pour some sweetened coconut milk on top, and decorate with fresh raspberries.
Sunday treat – Vegan coconut-banana mini cakes for a fancy breakfast
May 23rd
Plaisir du dimanche – Gâteau végan à la banane et noix de coco pour un petit déjeûner gourmand
I have always wanted to try to bake a vegan cake that tasted like a non-vegan cake, the great news is that this one tastes better than a non-vegan cake made with eggs and butter. This cake is so moist and flavorful that all my future banana cakes will be vegan. Sometimes you get stuck with some set ideas, such as an eggless cake cannot taste good. I am happy I decided to go against what I thought was right. I had a great weekend and these mini cakes contributed to it….and Prince too, since I went to see him perform in San Jose. What an incredible and talented artist! I knew he was talented but didn’t know he reached this level of musical genius. So Prince and these cakes made my weekend. I have to admit that my ears are still ringing from the sound of the concert, I think I lost some sense of hearing.
I have been very busy lately, and sadly not had much time to post any exciting recipe, nor time to experiment and develop new ideas. I have had a few requests for gluten-free or vegan meals lately, and I will be experimenting more gluten free and vegan desserts. In this particular cake, the ripe bananas mashed into a cream replaced the eggs and made these cakes amazingly moist. No need for eggs!Those mini cakes are perfect for breakfast with fresh fruits or as a little “encas” (snack) with tea or coffee in the afternoon. They’re so healthy and moist, pure velvet in your palate.
I added walnuts and dried apricots in the batter and I couldn’t have found a better ingredient combination for those ones. I used a little grape seed oil instead of vegan margarine, I think oil adds more moisture to the cake than margarine and will always be my first choice when baking vegan.
Ingredients for 5-6 people
Dry ingredients
- 4.23 oz (or 120 g) wholewheat flour
- 4.23 oz (or 120 g) brown rice flour
- 4.23 oz (or 120 g) brown sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla powder
- 3 tbs walnut, chopped
- 3 tbs dried unsweetened apricots, chopped
Wet ingredients
- 2 large ripe banana, mashed into a creamy texture
- 7 oz (or 200 g) coconut milk
- 2.82 oz (or 80 g) grape seed oil
- 1 tsp banana extract
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Preparation
Mix all “dry” ingredients together in a mixing container. In another container, mix “wet” ingredients. Add wet ingredients to “dry” ingredients and mix well to obtain a smooth batter. Using individual silicon molds, divide batter in 6 molds or one large cake dish. Cook for about 45 min at 365F, you might need to decrease temperature if the top starts getting a little dark. The cakes are cooked when you slide a knife and the blade comes out “clean”. Let it cool and sprinkle some unsweetened coconut flakes on top. Eat warm or cold with coffee or tea.
It’s not Paul, the octopus- Grilled octopus salad with fennel, peppers and olives
May 12th
Ce n’est pas Paul le poulpe – Salade de poulpe grillé au fenouil, poivrons et olives
Has anyone heard the story of Paul le poulpe, or Paul the octopus? Well my cousin came to visit a few months ago and he told me about this octopus story. Paul was a French octopus whose life lasted from 2008 to 2010, quite a short life…maybe that’s a lifespan for an octopus.
Paul was very famous, simply because he could predict the winner of the soccer games. He predicted 12 out of 14 games during the world cup. For French people, soccer is the national sport, getting to know in advance which team would win, and most of all getting scores from a mollusk whose destiny is to be in a pan along with tomatoes and onions, rather on TV with sports commentator, is something linked to the divine. I have no idea how an octopus could predict such scores, but it did, doesn’t this sound odd?
I have not met Paul, and I am sure he was quite a smart animal…now I have to admit that I love octopus in any form, shape and recipe. I do feel a little guilty to eat it, but when I eat it, I simply don’t think about this and I enjoy every bite of it.
Animals are amazing and teach us humility and kindness. My life changed since I had my dog and my parrot…all they want is to be with me, cuddle and eat. Maybe one day, I will buy an octopus to cuddle with, and will stop eating it, but in the meantime, I think I will still enjoy it. Doesn’t this sound cruel? I wish one day, I will stop eating any animal form…
Ingredients for 4
- 600 g octopus
- 1 fennel bulb, sliced
- 1 green bell pepper, sliced
- 1/2 red onion, sliced
- 1 cup small creamer potatoes
- 3 tbs celery leaves, chopped
- 2 tbs kalamata olives
for the vinaigrette
- 3 tbs olive oil
- zest of 1 lemon
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 pinches paprika
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cook octopus in water for about 2 hours or until tender. Slice in small thin pieces. Set aside in a mixing bowl. Grill fennel, peppers, onions on a skillet. Add to the octopus. Add all other ingredients and mix well.
Cook potatoes in salted water, and cook until tender, cut in half and add to the octopus.
For the vinaigrette, mix all ingredients together. Add to the octopus mixture and toss. Serve lukewarm with toasted bread.
Heidi’s starter – Baguette au levain
Apr 25th
Le levain d’Heidi – Baguette au levain
My lovely and adorable acupuncturist, Heidi gave me some starter that is supposedly 250 year old, can you imagine? Maybe Thomas Edison ate bread using the same starter…Heidi is amazing, she is not only a sweet and great doctor but she is an excellent baker. So if you need a good acupuncturist, go see Heidi, you will not regret it, she will relax you while giving you tips on how to make great bread!
I have to admit that I don’t consider myself to be a great baker but growing up in France, I am a baguette snob and addict. Eating bad bread in a restaurant can ruin my meal. I tried making baguettes, here and there but I never managed to make bread like the one you get at the boulangerie. I never made bread using a starter before, only fresh yeast. I thought why make bread when you can buy good one. Well, in France you can, almost all the boulangeries make great baguettes, you just walk down the street and get your baguette, end of story. In the US, it’s not always the case but I still didn’t want to go through the trouble of bread making, that’s as simple as that…but always thinking, “oh that would be so great to make my own baguette”…such a conflictual thought!
After buying Tartine’s book called “Tartine Bread” (for those out of town who don’t know Tartine Bakery, it’s a famous bakery in San Francisco whose country bread is simply incredible) and reading some of it, I got once more a little discouraged about all the details and the process in making levain and its bread. So after I got the starter from Heidi, I figured I would use her starter (levain) and use a few ideas taken from Tartine Bread book. I have made baguette using poolish, traditional French baguettes don’t use a starter. Poolish is basically a yeast starter, it’s the same process than a regular starter, but you put same quantities of flour and water, and a little tiny quantity of fresh yeast and let the mixture ferment.
In this baguette, I used half starter and half yeast, so you can taste a little bit of the sour flavor of the starter, but it’s very subtle. I have never really liked sourdough baguettes, I thought the flavor is too strong and the bread too compact, not airy enough..Maybe I am used to the traditional French baguettes…
So if you are in the mood for a long process and are committed to it, go ahead and try this, you will love these baguettes. Kneading and touching soft dough, is even more relaxing than a massage! BUT WARNING….You need to be patient and not in a hurry so this is not for the impatient types. If you have no patience, do not start this process, you might get frustrated. But if you’re up for the challenge, don’t think twice! Crunchy crust, the inside is moist, wonderful nutty flavor…After eating all this bread this weekend with cheese, I will avoid getting on the scale.
Ingredients for 4 baguettes
- 300 g starter (see here for recipe)
- 600 g bread flour
- water
- 2 tsp sea salt
For the poolish
- 200 g water
- 200 g flour
- 10 g fresh yeast (dissolved in lukewarm water)
Preparation
Prepare the poolish the night before. Dissolve yeast in water and in a small container, mix with flour to obtain a smooth and semi-liquid batter. Cover with a towel and let it rise for one hour or two, then place in the refrigerator overnight.
In the morning, using a large mixing container, mix starter and poolish, then add flour, water and salt. The quantity of water depends on the texture, you need enough water to make the dough soft and slightly sticky. Knead (your hands will have dough sticking to them) for a little while, then let it rest and rise for one hour. Then every 30 minutes, knead the dough lightly to “chase” the air. Repeat the process for 3 hours (every 30 minutes a beating).
Remove dough from container, and cut in 4 equal pieces, add flour to work the dough if necessary. Make rectangle shape dough pieces. Fold dough taking one end folding it up. Repeat the process about 10 times. Form baguettes, place on a baking stone and let rise again for about 2 hours.
Pre-heat oven at 500F, and at the same time, place a small metal container filled with water in the lower level of the oven.
Using a razor blade, make cuts on top of baguettes crosswise.
Place baguettes in oven and cook for about 30 minutes until the crust is golden brown.
Fresh, fruity and pink – Strawberry gaspacho
Apr 14th
Frais, fruité et tout rose – Gaspacho de fraises
I wanted to make something quick and fresh before my trip to LA leaving tomorrow, and use that big case of strawberries I bought. After strawberry tarts, coulis, cake, crumble, the only thing I haven’t tried with strawberries is soup and salad. So here is the soup…
There is a new tendance about using fruits to make cold soups which is something I really love. For many years, I was stuck with the idea that fruits are sweet, therefore need to be eaten as a dessert or in sweet preparations. With years going by, I opened my mind to using fruits in savory preparations and not necessarily eating them as desserts. After making watermelon gaspacho, and cantaloupe-port soup, I wanted to try making a cold soup with strawberries. Et voilà, c’est prêt! Spring is coming and hopefully summer will take away the allergens and pollen.
Who doesn’t like strawberries? I think it’s the most popular fruit among kids and adults, everything about a strawberry is sexy, its heart shape, its color, sweetness, and all the wonderful desserts, with which you can make. I don’t know what I like most about this soup, its color, its sweetness, it’s texture?
I have to be honest and admit that I still haven’t found flavorful and ripe strawberries lately, they might look good, but they’re not, you need ripe and sweet ones for this gaspacho, so you might want to wait for summer if you can resist and wait that long.
Anyway, I think fruits are the best thing on earth, try this gaspacho and you’ll agree with me!
Ingredients for 4
- 1 lb strawberries, stem removed and cut in halves
- 3 well ripe tomatoes, seedless, peeled and cubed
- 1 tbs red onion, chopped
- 2 slices white bread or ideally brioche
- 2 tbs good quality balsamic vinegar, or strawberry vinegar
- 2 pinches piment d’espelette
- salt and pepper
- 1/2 cup water
- mint leaves
Preparation
In a mixing container, soak brioche with vinegar for about 30 minutes. Then combine all other ingredients except mint and water. Refrigerate for about 2 hours. Using a hand blender, mix soaked brioche with the rest of the ingredients, until obtained a purée type of texture. Add water and pass through a sieve. Decorate with mint en chiffonade and serve chilled.
New variation – Verrine of mango and vanilla-pistachio couscous
Apr 12th
Nouvelle variante – Verrine de mangue à la semoule vanillée et pistaches
For people suffering from allergies, like me, it’s been a terrible spring in the Bay Area. Last year was mild compare to this one. I think I tried every drug over-the counter at the local Walgreens, from antihistamines, to expectorant to anti-inflammatory drugs… Nothing seems to help with my rhinitis, not even antibiotics or steroids the doctor prescribed. I am just counting the days until it goes away. Yes patience is a virtue in this case. In the meantime, my huge red nose and I, are trying to make quick meals in between a few sneezes.
I had in mind to find semoule for a while, and make semoule cake (gateau à la semoule); one of those thoughts that come and goes but even when it ‘s gone, it’s not really gone and still in the back of your mind. …basically semoule is a kind of semolina, that is used in France to make desserts. Since I have been unable to find it, because I don’t know how to call this. I ended up buying couscous which in France we call semoule de couscous. Regular semoule if finer that the couscous grain and thicker than semolina. This little fruity dessert is great for those days you feel like something sweet but not necessarily just a fruit, and no time to cook. Couscous can be accommodated in sweet preparations too, and is very quick to prepare. Just use milk and sugar instead of salt and water, and the trick is done.
You can use regular or wholewheat couscous, I think regular would have a softer and more subtle flavor with mangoes and in general in sweet preparations, and that’s what I’ll use next time.
Ingredients for 4
- 2 mangoes well riped, cubed
- 1 tsp orange blossom water
- 6 tbs wholewheat couscous (or regular)
- milk enough to cover the couscous
- 1 tbs sugar
- 1 vanilla bean cut in half
- 1 tbs pistachios, chopped
Preparation
Place mangoes in a recipient and add orange blossom water. Cover and refrigerate for about one hour. If the mangoes are not very ripe, you might want to add some sugar.
In another recipient, add couscous. Bring milk, split vanilla bean (with scraped beans) and sugar to a boil. Pour on top of the couscous. Cover and let couscous absorb milk. Add pistachios and fluff up couscous.
In a glass, add mangoes, top it with warm couscous and add extra pistachios.
Bread or brioche? – Raisin bread with a swirl
Apr 6th
Pain ou brioche? – Pain au raisins en spirale
I reconciled with cinnamon thanks to Rui, my lovely Japanese neighbor. I decided I didn’t like cinnamon after moving to the US, where cinnamon is used in almost every dessert. I think I had a cinnamon overdose and refused to eat anything where I could taste it. Rui, gave me half a loaf of bread she made even though she said it didn’t turn out very well and was embarrassed to give it to me. I gave her fresh yeast a few days earlier, and she used it making this bread. One thing I never told her is that I don’t eat cinnamon and that I have been on a cinnamon rebellion for years. Jamais de cannelle !!! So I politely took the bread and what else to do? since I am polite, I tasted it, even though you could smell cinnamon one kilometer away…I thought well, if I don’t like it, will I be lying and tell her, I love it, or be honest and say, I hate it? Tough call, what would you do? Polite or brutally honest?
I was lucky, it was love at first bite! What a delicious, moist, and soft bread, a pure delight for breakfast with butter and jam. Then I thought “well, for someone who doesn’t like cinnamon, I did a pretty good job finishing it”.
After that happy encounter with cinnamon, I decided to make my own bread…yes with cinnamon…actually, this bread is closer to a brioche than to what we French call bread. It has the ingredients and texture of a brioche. Now thinking about it, we do have a bread that is called “pain brioché” which is something in between a bread and a brioche, so talking about nuances and making people confused, yes the French are the masters of it.
It’s faster to make than a bread or a brioche, you don’t have to prepare it the night before, so it’s a great recipe to have in hands. Essayer c’est l’adopter! To try it is to adopt it.
Ingredients for one loaf
- 8.81 oz (or 250 g) flour
- 0.52 oz (or 15 g) yeast
- 3.7 fl oz (or 11 cl) milk
- 0.35 oz (or 10 g sugar) + 1 tbs
- 1 small egg
- 5 g salt
- 0.88 oz (or 25 g) butter
- 4 tbs raisins
- cinnamon to taste
Preparation
Dissolve yeast in 1/3 of milk. In a recipient mix milk/yeast mixture, sugar and 1/5 of the flour, mix well and let it rest for about 1 hour. Add the rest of the ingredients (except raisins, cinnamon, 1 tbs sugar) and mix well, to form an elastic dough, knead the dough for about 15 minutes.
Form a ball, and let rise for about 2 hours. Flatten the ball to form a rectangle, spread 1 tbs sugar raisins and cinnamon. Roll the dough and let it rise for another hour. Using a brush, spread some yolk on top. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 45 minutes.
Spring, here we are – Grilled beets, sweet potato and haloumi kebabs with arugula-lime dipping sauce
Mar 30th
Printemps, nous voilà – Brochettes grillées de betteraves, patates douces et haloumi, sauce de roquette et citron vert
Who said kekabs have to be with meat? you can do anything you usually do with meat using vegetables, some vegetables are more adapted to certain cooking methods, but are incredibly versatile.
I haven’t used haloumi in a long time, and really felt like grilling cheese, and especially haloumi with its delicate texture and pungent flavor. You can find some other haloumi recipe here and here. I bought some pomegranate molasses at my favorite Greek grocery store (called the Fruit Barn), and had to find a way to use it. Sometimes I can get a little obsessive, when I buy a new ingredient, I won’t stop thinking until I find a recipe to use it.
Pomegranate molasses is widely used in Lebanese and Iranian cuisine not really in French or Italian cuisines, but is definitely a Mediterranean ingredient. I loved the pomegranate juices you get in Israel, in those fruit juice joints in any street, they’re so refreshing and healthy. So pomegranate molasses is produced by reducing pomegranate juice, you get some syrupy texture, half sweet, half acidic.
Basically the natural sweetness of those kebabs produced by beets and sweet potatoes is a very pleasant sensation for your palate. It’s enhanced by the bitterness of arugula and acidity of pomegranate molasses, so you’ll see how delightful these kebabs are. The stars of this dish are definitely the haloumi and the pomegranate molasses.
Ingredients for 6 kebabs
For the kebabs
- 3 medium size beets, peeled and cut in 1 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut in 1 1/2 cubes
- 1 piece haloumi, cut in cubes (similar sizes than beets and potatoes)
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
- salt and pepper
For the arugula-lime sauce
- 1.5 cups arugula
- 1 tbs pomegranade molasses
- juice of 1 lime
- 2 tbs raw cashews
- 1 garlic clove
- 3 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Start preparing the arugula dipping sauce. Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend, until obtained a paste, but not too thin.
Start first by roasting beets. Place cut beets in a sheet, coat them with oil and vinegar, salt and pepper and broil in a 375F oven for about 20 minutes or until just tender. Remove from heat and keep warm.
Proceed using the same method with potatoes. Keep warm.
Using a wooden skewer, add one beet cube, then one potato cube, haloumi, another beet, and potato.
Heat a skillet or a grill pan, and grill each skewer, until the haloumi is grilled on all sides. Add some dipping sauce, and serve hot. You can serve the sauce on the side.
Ocean tagine – Tagine with squid, fava beans and leeks and simple pepper quinoa couscous
Mar 22nd
Tagine de la mer – Tagine aux seiches, fèves et poireaux
This was a dish I made while I was in France…since my dad was in the hospital, my mom and I just cooked simple meals because by 1pm we needed to be at the hospital. Tagines are wonderful if you don’t have to much time to eat but still want to enjoy a healthy and flavorful meal. Clay pot cooking is one of my favorites, and as soon as you try it, you will have a difficult time going back to a regular-pan cooking. It preserves all the aromas of each ingredient and infuses all the flavors together.
Like in papillotes, you can cook anything you like in tagines, just be creative, with a little audacity, and you’ll get a fabulous dish. A couple of years ago, it was not as easy to find a tagine claypot, but nowadays, most stores carry them (at least in California); tagines are becoming more trendy, simply because it has traveled outside borders and everyone has discovered their health benefits, and still keeping amazing aromas.
I have seen many types of couscous in France (in France we call the actual grain semoule, couscous being the Algerian dish, made with vegetables, meat and semoule) different kinds of whole grains, such as kamut, quinoa, spelt, etc…since my mom had diabetes, I tried to make dishes that were good for her, or at least that did not aggravate her diabetes. This quinoa couscous is a perfect grain to go with any tagine. Of course people who don’t like squid can use other ingredients such as shrimps, or white fish. I kept the couscous simple with no major strong flavors, to really enjoy the tagine broth, couscous being a minor addition in this meal, necessary but secondary.
Ingredients for 3
- 1 lb squid
- 1/2 onion, sliced
- 1 1/2 leeks, cut in 1 inch pieces
- 1/2 lb fava bean, peeled
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp ras-el-hanout
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1 inch ginger, grated
- salt and pepper
For the quinoa couscous
- 140 g quinoa semolina
- 1 tbs olive oil
- vegetable broth
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- salt
- cracked pepper
Preparation
For the tagine
Heat olive oil in tagine and brown the onions. Add leeks and cook for about 5 minutes. Add squid, and all other ingredients except for the fava beans. Mix all ingredients well. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and cook fava beans for three minutes. Remove from heat, drain and peel fava beans. 10 minutes before end of cooking time, add fava beans to the tagine, cover and let it cook for another 10 minutes. Sprinkle with fennel leaves or mint and serve with couscous.
For the quinoa couscous
Proceed like for a regular wheat couscous. Bring vegetable broth to a boil. Coat couscous with olive oil using your fingers. Add broth to the couscous, cover and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Using a fork, separate the grains, add lemon juice and cracked pepper. Adjust with salt if necessary. For broth quantity, I cover the couscous with 5mm of extra broth above couscous.
