Healthy Vegetarian Roasted Carrot, Coriander and Orange Couscous

October 27, 2014

Healthy Vegetarian Roasted Carrot, Coriander and Orange Couscous

Healthy Vegetarian Roasted Carrot, Coriander and Orange Couscous

Healthy Vegetarian Roasted Carrot, Coriander and Orange Couscous

This seems like an appropriate recipes to be posting on a Monday- perfect for a meatless meal!

Root vegetables are deliciously in season right now. Normally steamed or boiled, root vegetables really come into their own when roasted. Much like roasting meat, the key to roasting vegetables it to keep it simples, with just a couple of flavour enhancers to bring out the natural sweetness.

The age old partner of the carrot is coriander, both in the ground spice and green herb variety (in
America the leafy part of the coriander is called cilantro). Orange is a really great fragrant addition, adding a bit of lightness to the earthy carrots.


Ingredients: Serves 2 as an entree or 4 as a side

1lb carrots
6 oz couscous
1 orange, juice and zest
a couple of glugs of olive oil
1 tsp ground coriander
small bunch cilantro/coriander leaf
Salt and pepper

Method:

Peel the carrots and slice into chunks diagonally. This isn't just to look fancy, by slicing diagonally you create lots of sharp edges that will roast up to be crispy and incredibly sweet.

Zest the orange and set the zest aside, you don't need it just yet but it's a lot easier to zest a whole orange rather than squeezed halves.

Tumble the carrots into a baking dish then squeeze over the orange juice, a couple of glugs of olive oil, the ground coriander and some shakes of salt and pepper.

Pop into a preheated oven at 375F and roast for about 15 to 20 minutes.

In the mean time, pour the dried couscous into a tupperware dish that has a lid- you can put it into any bowl that can be covered with cling film but as it's only going to need to be covered for about 10 minutes so using a lidded dish seems less wasteful.

Season the couscous with salt and pepper then pour in enough boiling water to just cover the grains, too much water and the couscous will become soggy. It's better to use less, make crunchy couscous and need to add a little more water to get it just right. Cover the dish or pop the tupperware lid on and leave to absorb the water for about 10 minutes. Use a fork to fluff up the couscous and check the consistency.

Finely chop the cilantro and add it with the orange zest to the couscous, stir in well.

When the carrots are roasted and still warm mix them into the herby, orangey couscous

Serve warm for a seasonal salad or let cool and keep in the fridge for a heathy, tasty lunchtime treat!






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