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So to start this recipe. This is a really quick one, which is really nice. We have one
cup of dried couscous here and what I want to do is one cup of warm water. Pretty warm.
I boiled this and it’s just been sitting here for a couple minutes so it’s cooled
down a little bit. You can just use boiled water that’s fine. So the ratio is one to
one give or take. Whole wheat couscous seems to take a little bit more liquid so might
want to add a quarter cup more. And before we add the water a little trick about how
we infuse more flavor into that. If you don’t want to use water you can use actually vegetable
stock or chicken stock. Everything gets absorbed into the couscous. So any liquid that you
actually put into it is going to get absorbed so the more flavor you add to that liquid
or to the couscous prior to reconstituting it or rehydrating it is just less salt or
fat you’re going to need at the end. So with the couscous here we’re just going
to add a little bit of dried basil or some dried mint if you want and lemon zest. And
this is an organic lemon we washed well and we’re using a rasp or a microplane. A great
technique we love doing this. This is one of our favorite techniques to get a beautiful
citrus lemon flavor especially for people who have a sore mouth. So I have a lot of
zest here I like the zest you can add as much as you want it’s pretty fragrant. All of
these essential lemon oils are in the zest and so that’s going to go in. and we’re
just going to give it a quick stir it’s easier to combine now that it’s dry so that’s
when I like to do this ahead of time. And then we’re going to add our cup of warm
water. And I’ve done recipes like this before where I’ve put orange juice to flavor up
the couscous to give it that extra citrus. So if that appeals to you that’s something
you could try. So like I said the warm water goes in, I’m going to put some saran wrap
on top and you can put even just a damp towel will work and set this aside. We’re going
to do a pumpkin seed pesto. Pesto traditional uses pine nuts, pine nuts must be made of
gold or some sort of fancy metal because they’re very expensive. It’s very expensive. But
what I love about pesto is that there are not any hard rules in pestos. You can replace
the pine nuts with walnuts if you like, with almonds if you like. Something with a little
bit of healthy fat into it that gives you that nuttiness, it gives you that healthy
fat that helps you bind everything together. So pumpkin seeds work great, absolutely fantastic.
It’s a great substitute for pine nuts a little bit cheaper as well, but again you
can use almonds, walnuts. And what I did ahead of time is just roasted them. So just heated
them in a pan. You don’t have to do this, but I don’t know if you can see from here,
it’s not the greatest shot, but it’s a little glossy. So those essential oils are
coming out of the pumpkin seeds. It just helps to break them down. Sometimes I’ve seen
people toast seeds or toast nuts in the pan and the put oil in the pan first. So you don’t
have to do that like Geremy was saying. Yes. And it’s even better if you don’t because
you’re going to get this beautiful browning and toasting on that side of the seed. So
the pumpkin seeds are going to go in and we’re going to add a couple cloves of garlic, some
sun dried tomatoes which I love in this. If you want it a little spicy, on the hot side
you can add a chili to it. And again up to you a little bit of the red chili. You’re
not going to get too much heat you’re going to get some of that flavor, which is nice.
And if you want it spicy if you want to get a good kick throw the whole chili in, so warn
your guests ahead of time. And then we’re going to add our fresh herbs. I’ve got a
big bunch of parsley here. You can add basil, you can do a little bit of sage would work
actually well in here. A little bit of cilantro for those cilantro lovers, I love cilantro,
but you can put some of that in there. Parsley is nice, it’s pretty neutral, but has a
nice sweetness to it. And we’re going to add – I’m obviously not measuring this-
but it’s about two cups or so. Don’t be afraid to add the stems, just the very bottom
you want to cut off, but the stems are super super sweet as well. And we’re doing this
in a food processor so it’ll break down. If you want to go old school we have the mortar
and pestle there. It’s a fantastic way to do it, but it’s going to take you a little
bit longer. It counts as exercise if you use the mortar and pestle. That’s right there
you go. So you can work out before you have your pre workout meal. Absolutely. So parsley
goes in and you’re going to add just a little bit of parmesan cheese. This is going to give
you some flavor so a little bit of that sodium. We’re going to add some lemon juice in there.
Put in about three tablespoons or so. It’s about half a lemon give or take and you can
adjust at the end. That’s always important, taste and adjust. So I’m going to juice
the lemon. Has anyone forked a lemon before? A couple people? Yes? So what’s forking
a lemon. It’s just a fork in the lemon and it makes it a lot easier. I didn’t see that
one coming Geremy. I thought there was going to be more to this technique. Sometimes. Geremy
has another technique that shows you all the paper cuts on your hands and that’s straining
the lemon through your hand until you catch all the seeds. Yes you can strain it through
your fingers. I’ve tried that at home and I still somehow get a seed in there so I like
the colander, the strainer idea. So we’re just going to add that lemon juice and that’s
going to add a lot of brightness to this. And again you can change it up a little bit,
add a little bit of orange juice if you want, add a little bit of lime juice would be great
in there. And like Christy said we’re going to be making a pretty big batch of pesto.
If you’re going to make pesto I always say you know if you’re going to the trouble
make a bigger batch because it stores really well. Put it in little ice cube containers
and freeze it then you can throw it into recipes. Just warn your family before you do that.
Geremy has drank water with pesto cubes in it. You don’t want to grab a glass of ice
water in the middle of the night and have parsley floating in it. And I say that from
experience so. Okay so just pulse it, plug it in, there we go. Just pulse it a little
bit beforehand and then we’re going to drizzle in our olive oil. So we add about 4 tablespoons
of olive oil. Again like I said it seems like a lot, but we’re only going to be using
a small amount. And that looks just about right. So I’ll show you from the color.
It looks stunning. Really nice rich color, beautiful pesto and you see the specks of
the red from the sundried tomato and the chili. Super fragrant and it’ll add a really nice
punch to the rest of the dish. So that’s pretty much it. That looks beautiful. And
so the couscous you can store it, have a lot of leftovers and just to finish it and you
can put whatever you want in it you can put some cucumbers. I roasted some cherry tomatoes
and really, really simple, you can put fresh cherry tomatoes if you like. I just had some
whole cherry tomatoes popped them into the broiler and it just concentrates the flavor
a little bit. This is just a little bit of the final step and you can see how they’ve
roasted and shriveled up. What’s really nice is I know some people don’t like the
skins of the tomatoes. It’s actually an easy way to just pop the skins off. So especially
that fiber from the skin is bothersome way to do that. So to finish that is just a touch
of balsamic vinegar, just a little bit of acid in there. How long did you roast it?
Just about three minutes four minutes. Everyone’s boiler is a little bit different. What I suggest
is just keep an eye on it. It doesn’t take long, you don’t want to burn them. And that’s
it. It’s a beautiful one to have you know two hours before you workout. You can have
it as a smaller snack. If you want to have it as a meal you know three hours or more
before your work out then adding a bit of protein like a small piece of fish or some
beans or lentils to it to get that protein content will be helpful to tide you over.
You can even have it post workout if you want to add some extra protein to make sure that
you replenish your muscles