Sometime this year, I wrote down a list of everything I could possiblely make for lunch that wasn’t rice.

Why you ask? I fell into a terrible habit of constantly making rice for work lunch in 2016 and I told myself I would be better this year. So far so good. We still do rice every other week but at least we have been able to drastically increase our variety.

This recipe is a mix of my world famous Jollof recipe and this super delicious Nigerian style couscous recipe that I have here. We served it with some suya for lunch this past week and it was incredibly delicious.

A great tip to remember with coucous is that it’s precooked and doesn’t have to be boiled. The only thing you are doing is hydrating the grains. Do not be tempted to boil it, you will only end up with soggy-mushy mess.

Ingredients

• 3 cups couscous
• 1 cup stew base (or a blend of 1 large tomato, 1 red bell pepper, 1 small onion and 1 hot pepper)
• 1 tbspn tomato paste
• 1 small onion – thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup oil
• 2 bay leaves
• Teaspoon each (curry, thyme and white pepper)
• 3 maggi cubes
• Salt – to taste
• 3 cups chopped vegetables of choice (mushrooms, bell pepper, asparagus, peas, carrot etc)
• 2 tbspns butter or coconut oil

Direction

• Place a large pot on medium heat. Heat up oil. Add in sliced onion and fry until slightly brown. Add in bay leaf, curry, thyme and white pepper. fry for a few seconds. Add in stew base and tomato paste. Cover and leave to boil for 10 minutes or until oil floats to the top.

• Season with 3 maggi cubes and salt. Add in 3 cups of water. Stir. Taste and adjust for seasoning. Cover and leave to boil for 5 minutes.

• Add in couscous. Stir. Turn off the heat and leave pot tightly covered for 10 minutes.

• Gently fluff jollof couscous with a fork.

• Add some coconut oil or butter to a large pan and heat slightly. Add in the chopped vegetables. Season with salt . Toss and leave to cook for 3 mins. Stir in fluffed jollof couscous and combine

• Fried Jollof Couscous is ready to serve.