Easy Cook: Zucchini, Cherry Tomato & Couscous Medley

Here’s a rather unique dish for using some of the abundance of zucchini which shows up in our gardens, grocery stores and farmer’s markets each summer. This recipe is simple to mix up and quite tasty. The dish pairs roasted zucchini squash and cherry tomatoes with couscous and a splash of red wine vinegar. What is couscous? It is sort of like a pasta which is about the size of small barley. This pasta-like ingredient sits on my kitchen shelf, lonely, just waiting for a recipe to come along to use it. Here’s a great pairing — the neutral couscous blends well with the tomatoes and zucchini. We really like this recipe!

What is couscous?

Couscous is made from semolina flour (the flour used to make pasta) which is somehow rolled and rolled until the flour forms into tiny balls. The type of couscous which is sold locally is easy to cook. If fact, you just add the dry couscous to boiling water (or broth) and let it steam for 5 minutes. Couscous becomes rather dry when it cools down, so prepare the couscous as the last step in this recipe. I don’t use couscous very often and am glad to finally find a recipe which includes this tiny pasta.

Recipe

In this recipe, the zucchini, tomatoes and garlic are tossed in olive oil and roasted in the oven. The vegetables are then transferred to a bowl — along with any juices remaining from oven roasting. A little red wine vinegar is added along with the cooked couscous. (I added a chicken bouillon cube to the couscous while it steamed for flavor — this is optional.) Everything is gently tossed and transferred to a serving bowl. The juices from the vegetables, olive oil and vinegar really make this a flavorful dish!

Here are the ingredients. The seasonings (not shown) are salt, pepper and chicken bouillon.

I used one medium-sized zucchini and cut it into chunks. I cut the cherry tomatoes into halves. These were separately coated with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted in the oven. The zucchini takes longer to roast. So I removed the tomatoes after 5 minutes and added the minced, canned garlic to the zucchini which I roasted a little longer. After roasting, I transferred these to a small bowl (along with juices) and added red wine vinegar.

Meanwhile, I steamed the couscous in water along with one chicken bouillon cube. Then I gently mixed the steamed couscous into the prepared zucchini and tomatoes.

I transferred the mixture to a serving bowl and served while still warm.

This makes a delightful way to use up some of that endless supply of zucchini. Mixing it with tomatoes, garlic and red wine vinegar added a abundance of flavor to this dish. The couscous is bland and neutral in flavor and worked well with these vegetables. Hope you will enjoy this dish on some of these hot summer days!