Couscous Sausage Mediterranean

Name: Couscous Sausage Mediterranean
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 6 serving(s)
Ingredients: 236.59 ml diced raw onion; 9.85 ml olive oil; 226.79 g your favorite seasoned sausage, crumbled (can use veggie sausage); 3 garlic cloves, minced; 354.88 ml diced fresh tomatoes; 9.85 ml minced fresh french basil; 473.18 ml chicken broth (or vegetable broth, for vegetarian); 473.18 ml couscous; 14.79 ml crumbled feta cheese (optional); salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste; fresh lemon juice or lime juice, to taste

Submitted by Julesong

"This is a version of my husband Mike's basic couscous dish that he often makes. He generally puts it together with whatever we have on hand, but this version came out so well that I had to make sure to write it up. I'd be happy if he made this one weekly!"

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photo by dakotah

Ready In:: 30mins
Ingredients:: 11
Serves:: 6

ingredients

236.59 ml diced raw onion
9.85 ml olive oil
226.79 g your favorite seasoned sausage, crumbled (can use veggie sausage)
3 garlic cloves, minced
354.88 ml diced fresh tomatoes
9.85 ml minced fresh french basil
473.18 ml chicken broth (or vegetable broth, for vegetarian)
473.18 ml couscous
14.79 ml crumbled feta cheese (optional)
salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
fresh lemon juice or lime juice, to taste

directions

Heat the oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add the onion and cook until it softens, about 4-5 minutes.
Add the crumbled sausage and cook until it is mostly browned, about 7-9 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. (Careful not to let it burn!) Reduce heat to medium.
Add the tomato and basil and cook until tomato softens, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Quick now, cook the couscous: bring broth to a boil, add couscous; remove from heat and let stand for 2 minutes. Stir and fluff with a fork.
Mix cooked sausage mixture with the cooked couscous and crumbled feta (if using). Season to taste with salt, freshly ground black pepper, and squeeze over a bit of freshly squeeze lemon or lime juice. Serve!
Servings: about 6.
Mike's suggestions for substitutions/additions: 1 Tbsp finely chopped calamata olive, chopped mushroom, chopped artichoke heart, chopped sundried tomato, sautéed fennel, spinach, chopped cucumber.
As far as sausage goes, we use our homemade lamb-based French Merguez (also posted here at http://www.food.com/recipe/french-merguez-sausages-culinary-communion-340487) which is astoundingly good. But a flavorful Italian sausage would be good, too. Seasoned turkey sausage would be fine if you want to make it even leaner. Or hey, mmm, chorizo! You can even use vegetarian no-meat sausage, if you like - just pay attention to the seasonings so it doesn't turn out tasting bland.
Re tomatoes: I dislike cooked tomato peel, so I prefer to not use cherry tomatoes for this dish. Regular chopped fresh tomato is my preference.
This is a really versatile recipe, you can substitute ingredients to achieve whatever flavor profile you want. Also, we get our couscous in bulk because otherwise it's far too expensive to buy in prepackaged little boxes.

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Reviews

I made this and I liked it very much!! It had a very good favor. I did, however put it in my rice cooker and it turned out wonderful. I did however use a box of couscous with parmesan cheese. The parmesan cheese in the box of couscous I subsituted for the feta in the recipe. I also used 2 chicken bouillon cubes with 2 cup of water for the broth. I used can diced tomatoes for the fresh. I used 3 sausage patties that was left over from breakfast. I did use what I had on hand. The onions,garlic, and one tablespoon of lemon juice I just put in the rice cooker and let it cook and was delicious. Thank you for sharing. I do have a photo, but can not post yet, because the computer is not letting me. Chef #220151

dakotah

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

Julesong

Tukwila, 87

It's simply this: I love to cook! :) I've been hanging out on the internet since the early days and have collected loads of recipes. I've tried to keep the best of them (and often the more unusual) and look forward to sharing them with you, here. I am proud to say that I have several family members who are also on RecipeZaar! My husband, here as <a href=http://www.recipezaar.com/member/39857>Steingrim</a>, is an excellent cook. He rarely uses recipes, though, so often after he's made dinner I sit down at the computer and talk him through how he made the dishes so that I can get it down on paper. Some of these recipes are in his account, some of them in mine - he rarely uses his account, though, so we'll probably usually post them to mine in the future. My sister <a href=http://www.recipezaar.com/member/65957>Cathy is here as cxstitcher</a> and <a href=http://www.recipezaar.com/member/62727>my mom is Juliesmom</a> - say hi to them, eh? Our <a href=http://www.recipezaar.com/member/379862>friend Darrell is here as Uncle Dobo</a>, too! I've been typing in his recipes for him and entering them on R'Zaar. We're hoping that his sisters will soon show up with their own accounts, as well. :) I collect cookbooks (to slow myself down I've limited myself to purchasing them at thrift stores, although I occasionally buy an especially good one at full price), and - yes, I admit it - I love FoodTV. My favorite chefs on the Food Network are Alton Brown, Rachel Ray, Mario Batali, and Giada De Laurentiis. I'm not fond over fakey, over-enthusiastic performance chefs... Emeril drives me up the wall. I appreciate honesty. Of non-celebrity chefs, I've gotta say that that the greatest influences on my cooking have been my mother, Julia Child, and my cooking instructor Chef Gabriel Claycamp at Seattle's Culinary Communion. In the last couple of years I've been typing up all the recipes my grandparents and my mother collected over the years, and am posting them here. Some of them are quite nostalgic and are higher in fat and processed ingredients than recipes I normally collect, but it's really neat to see the different kinds of foods they were interested in... to see them either typewritten oh-so-carefully by my grandfather, in my grandmother's spidery handwriting, or - in some cases - written by my mother years ago in fountain pen ink. It's like time travel. Cooking peeve: food/cooking snobbery. Regarding my black and white icon (which may or may not be the one I'm currently using): it the sea-dragon tattoo that is on the inside of my right ankle. It's also my personal logo.

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