RECIPE: Easy, Calorie Friendly Couscous

It's only natural that our daily food choices are influenced by what's most available to us. In New York, for instance, my diet consists mostly of Asian food: sushi daily, and steamed or lightly stir-fried Chinese when I'm trying not to induce Type 2 Diabetes (liver failure, however, is a guarantee-- I'm past worrying at this point). I've always liked couscous but it wasn't until this most recent stay in France that I made that tasty grain a staple. I plan on continuing this habit back in NYC. It's a perfect food, really: extremely satisfying and filling but with only traces of fat and generally low in calories (depending on portion size, of course).

For the record, I would like to say that I don't tend to measure things out when I cook, thus these "recipes" can more appropriately called guidelines, unless I steal them from elsewhere and take credit.

For the couscous broth, which turns out to be something like a homemade vegetable soup, chop up carrots, potatoes and zucchini. For a large pot, three carrots, two zucchini and five medium size potatoes should be sufficient. You can vary up the quantities, but be sure no one ingredient is more predominant than another (unless you like it that way, in which case I won't judge). Put the vegetables in a large soup pot, add water and a bit of salt and bring to a boil. Let the vegetables boil for about ten minutes, then reduce the heat.

In France you can buy tablets for "couscous" stock, but elsewhere it should be sufficient to use vegetable broth tablets and coriander, ginger, garlic and cumin to taste. Just a half teaspoon of each should be fine (I made that up because I haven't tried it yet but it sounds reasonable). For 2-3 liters of boiling water, add two couscous or vegetable broth tablets and two beef broth tablets. Make sure the tablets are blended well and don't stick to the bottom of the hot pot. Let the vegetables and stock sit for about twenty minutes.

Next add one can of chopped tomatoes (unflavored, unseasoned) and a small can of tomato paste to thicken the stock. At this point you might want to lower the heat a bit more. After adding these basic ingredients, let the stock continue to simmer for an hour, maybe more or less depending on how soft you like your vegetables. About 5-10 minutes before serving, add a can of chickpeas, drained.

That should have required very little effort, and there's not much more to do. Cook some unflavored couscous according to the directions on the box. 1 cup dry is usually more than enough for 1 person. The grain itself makes up the majority of the calories, but one cup cooked is only 176 calories and 0.3 grams of fat. Crazy French diet programs that require you to drink rosemary detox water claim that couscous is a green light food, while pasta is a red light no-no.

If you haven't figured it out already, you pour the vegetable stock onto the couscous grain and let it soak in. If you need to indulge your carnivorous side, couscous is best accompanied by chicken, lamb kebabs or, my all time favorite, merguez, a lamb and beef sausage. Make sure that you have some harissa to add some spice. Harissa is a North African hot sauce, and it is damn spicy so be cautious.