Garlic Couscous With Toasted Pine Nuts

This recipe for couscous with pine nuts is easy, nutritious and satisfying. It’s everything you’d want in a healthy side dish for a weeknight dinner.

I love making this easy couscous during the week. It’s a satisfying healthy side carb that requires little effort or time. Couscous can be boring and bland, so it needs a boost of flavor from other ingredients. I use chicken broth as the base, simmered with roughly chopped garlic and add in just a bit of toasted pine nuts for depth and texture. You can easily omit the pine nuts if you don’t have them or don’t want to pay for them (I get it), but they’re a nice addition. Altogether, it makes for a really savory couscous.

Is couscous good for you?

If you’re wondering, is couscous healthy? The answer is, it can be. The couscous grain is durum wheat, also called semolina. It’s a whole grain, that pasta is traditionally made from (though, some brands in the US use white or whole wheat flour for pasta). Since durum wheat is a type of wheat, couscous does contain gluten. Couscous is a basic ingredient that can be made into a health side dish by mixing in herbs, vegetables and/or other whole ingredients. For this recipe, I use chicken broth/bone broth, pine nuts, garlic and extra virgin olive oil, to make a more mediterranean couscous.

Cooking Couscous

Preparing couscous is easy and homemade couscous isn’t much different from a boxed kind in terms of how it’s cooked. The main difference is how you’d flavor it. You don’t exactly ‘cook’ it, but simply let it sit in how liquid until it’s absorbed. Then fluff it up with a fork. The liquid to couscous ratio is important to ensure you get a fluffy couscous, rather than a dense or dry texture.

How I Serve Couscous

I like to serve this garlic couscous with a simple protein and non starchy vegetable. A few of my go-to combinations are with grilled chicken and grilled peppers/zucchini, these salmon burgers and roasted broccoli or cauliflower or grilled shrimp and grilled peppers with chimichurri sauce.

Recipe for ‘Garlic Couscous With Toasted Pine Nuts’

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Yields: 2-3 servings

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup couscous

• 1 cup liquid (chicken broth/bone broth)

• 3 garlic cloves

• 1-2 tbsp pine nuts

• salt to taste (~1/4 tsp)

• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Crush and roughly chop 3 garlic cloves and set aside. Allowing them to sit for 10 minutes before cooking helps to retain health benefits!

2. Measure out cooking liquid. I use half chicken broth for flavor and half bone broth for health benefits, so a half cup of each.

3. Bring cooking liquid to a simmer and add in garlic cloves. Simmer for 5 minutes, covered.

4. Measure out couscous and set aside.

5. Heat a skillet to medium and toast the pine nuts. It happens quick, about 4-5 minutes, so don’t walk away!

6. Turn the heat off of cooking liquid and add salt and olive oil. Then add couscous and swirl in pan to level out. Cover and let sit for 8-10 minutes.

7. Add toasted pine nuts and fluff/stir with fork. Taste for seasoning and stir in more salt if needed.

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