This week the theme of Steemit Iron Chef was nuts and my first instinct just told me to make my famous hazelnut-date tart. But I made a cake a couple of days ago and we still have leftovers. Plus, I like to make the sweet stuff once in a while, for it to not lose the magic.
So, this week I bent the rules a little bit. Nuts were not the main ingredient in my dish but they are essential for taste. Pine nuts are amazing, they are extra healthy and unique in taste. The only downside is the price, nuts tend to have high prices and I got 120 g of pine nuts for 7 euros. Whooot? Well, no harm no fault, I just made sure that everything else in the meal was not pricey.
My boyfriend is trying to eat healthier, he does not like meat that much but he does eat it when it is prepared. However, he was more happy about me making mostly vegetables than I have seen him the whole last week. And it was time, time to eat a little healthier for at least a day.
Couscous with Brussels sprouts in a sauce, infused with nutty tastes of the pine nuts. I made this meal in around an hour. It serves 6 portions and is very easy to do. The only thing you should know is that you will need to work with two big pots and one small simultaneously.
Ingredients
1 l chicken broth
1 kg Brussels sprouts
200 g green peas
120 ml sweet cream
310 g couscous
120 g pine nuts
1 onion
80 g of butter
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons of olive oil
green onions
a chili pepper
This is a fast, easy recipe that only calls for three hands. :D Well, not really, it just calls for more than one pot.
First, cut up everything and all you have on your table, green onions and onions, chili peppers.
Take of the ends of Brussels Sprouts and clean them, cut off the ends of peas and take out two big pans (or one pan and one pot) and one smaller pan.
Put 30 g of butter in the first pan and add olive oil. Heat it up and put in the onion
Reduce heat and let the diced onion get browner, mix them once in a while
Put a little but of butter in the smaller pot and drop in 50 g of the pine nuts, roast them and make sure you look after them, so they do not burn.
Take the other bigger pot and add butter to it, when it has melted, put in the Brussels sprouts and peas in
Reduce heat and add 250 ml of chicken broth in the pan, put on the lid and let it simmer until the Brussels Sprouts are ready
Now, your onions in the first pan should be ready, add the rest of the chicken broth to them and bring to boil
When the broth boils, mix in couscous in the broth, add a teaspoon of salt and a little bit of pepper, put on the lid and leave couscous for 10 minutes to raise
Take off the pine nuts, they should be ready as well
Take the smaller pan that you roasted your nuts in(they should be removed from it by now)
Add in it the rest of the nuts, butter, the green onions(only the white and light green parts) and a chopped chili pepper
Put the heat quite high and roast the nuts, let the chili pepper get soft and so on, it will look something like this:
In the middle of the mixed stuff being ready, the couscous will be up
Add the 50 g of roasted nuts to the mix and a little bit of the leek from the green onions. If the mix does not has enough spices, add some salt and pepper
Put the lid back on and be relieved that you are done with one of the pots! :D
Take the nut/chili/onion mix, it should be nice and ready now
Add the sweet cream to it and bring to boil
Your Brussels Sprouts should have lost most of the liquid in the pan
Add the nut/chili/onion/cream mix to them and mix everything together
Now, everything should be soft, delicious and mostly healthy!
Serve the couscous and greens together, they add to each other's taste and do not weigh heavily on the belly.
I hope I was not too over the place with all of my pots. If something is unclear, please ask me or try to figure it out through the pictures if you are shy! :)
Have a yummy day, today, tomorrow and forever!
Linda