One of the things I love most about cous cous, apart from the flavour and texture itself, is how ridiculously hassle free it is to make. Many people cook their cous cous on a stove, but this is so utterly unnecessary! Cous cous will cook itself if you afford it 20 minutes to do so! Whenever I make it, I get plenty of compliments on the flavour and that is because I never serve it plain... I always add a little bit of rice spice into it. It really just makes it SO moreish!

Pour one cup of dry cous cous into a bowl and then add about a dessert spoon of rice spice to it. Mix the dry ingredients together while you boil the kettle. Once the kettle has just boiled, add a cup and a bit of the boiling hot water to the cous cous and stir quickly with a fork. Allow it a minute to absorb the water and then add a healthy swirl of olive oil. Stir again with a fork, making sure that you coat it all well in the olive oil, pat it flat with the fork so it retains the heat and then cover immediately and leave it for at least 15 minutes. Done. How simple was that! lol!

I decided to spunk up the cous cous a little more this time around and added a little bit of sauteed red salad onions, garlic and parsley to the mix. So firstly, I heated up a small pan and chopped up the salad onions.

Once the pan was ready to go, I added a little olive oil and then threw in the onions.. to that mix, I added some chopped parsley and fresh garlic. I sauteed that for about 5 minutes. Just long enough to give the onions etc. that wilted look and then I set it one side to cool for about ten minutes (also allowing the cous cous a little more time to cook itself.

Once both the cous cous and the onion were ready, I added them to the cous cous, along with some crumbled feta cheese. Then I just mixed them up nicely together and voila! that's the cous cous done. It really is such a simple thing to prepare and I normally make it without all the extras. It is also a wonderfully versatile base, as you can add pretty much anything into cous cous and it will be a success.

Then it was time to prep the chops. Now normally I do the chops with rosemary or something like that - but I decided to coat them a little differently this time around. I put a small dollop of chutney which is a sweet and sticky peach and apricot sauce. It is the sort of sauce you can use for a million and one things and eat with pretty much everything too. My son Jude absolutely loves it and has it with almost everything haha!

When it comes to the cooking of the chops, it is something that I normally start about 30 minutes before I want to serve - and 99% of that time is simply for the oven to heat up. I place the tray right at the top of the oven and preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celsius. When it is ready, I pop the chops in and cook for exactly 5 minutes, take them out, turn them over, turn the oven off and pop them back in while I get everything else that's going onto the plate, ready. There is nothing worse than a dry, chewy, overcooked chop - which is why I do them at a high heat for a VERY short time. That gets them beautifully crispy on the fatty strips and the meat is still gorgeous and pink on the inside.

The only thing left to do at that point was the peas, which literally take 5 minutes in the microwave in a bowl, uncovered with some water and fresh mint. I only ever buy the frozen baby peas - they are FAR nicer in my opinion... then lastly, the avo - because if you do that too early it will all go brown... and even with the pip left in it, it still browns a little. I sliced the avo into cubes and then very gently tossed it in with the peas.

Originally, I wanted to add chopped mint to the avo and pea smash, but I was a little concerned that the pungent flavour of the mint, may not go down too well with my little man, so I simply scattered it on the side of my plate so that my adult palate could enjoy the flavour combination. Once that was done, everything was ready to serve. It was a really simplistic plate of food to prepare, but daaaamn was it tasty! - even if I do say so myself! Although Jude did not have any of the lamb, both the avo and pea smash and the cous cous were a hit with him that he had seconds of both... (and he hates onion lol) - And as any mother will know, when your kids give you such an enormous thumbs up, it is the BIGGEST compliment!

So there you have it Hive account@awgbibb... "Lé Lamb Chops" as promised haha ;)