Moroccan Eggplant with Couscous Recipe
After a three day weekend at a movie festival in Indiana, where meals consisted of Cracker Barrel (breakfast), Pizza Hut (lunch) and Taco Bell (dinner), I was ready for veggies. Time to pull out my trusty new favorite, The Produce Bible: Essential Ingredient Information and More Than 200 Recipes for Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs & Nuts.
Regular readers know that I have been building a relationship with eggplant this summer. Yesterday, I added a new recipe to my eggplant repertoire: Moroccan Eggplant with Couscous.
For 2 people you need:
- 1/2 cup couscous
- olive oil
- 1/2 onion, sliced
- 1 eggplant
- 3 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- butter
Put the couscous in a bowl and pour boiling water over it. Leave for about 10 minutes and fluff with a fork.
Meanwhile, heat some oil in a frying pan and cook the onion for about 10 minutes.
Once the onions are browned, remove them from the pan.
Cut the eggplant into 1 inch thick slices and then quarters. Put in a bowl with the spices and a little salt and toss to make sure the slices are well coated. Add a little more oil to the pan, then add the eggplant. Cook for 25 minutes over a medium heat, turning once.
When the eggplant is cooked, remove from the pan and set aside with the onion.
Melt a little butter in the same pan, add the couscous and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the onion and eggplant and warm through before serving.
I'll be honest, I really wasn't sure how this was going to turn out but it was delicious. Even Nic, a die-hard meat lover, told me it was a keeper and went so far as to say that the eggplant took on a nice meatiness.