Home ec practical: Couscous salad.

Last Friday we made Couscous salad for our home economics practical. The practical was simple and our team worked really well together. I think the end product was good and we followed the recipe really well.

We are learning: about New Zealand's food culture and what dishes influence it.
How does this show our learning: This dish is a really great way to introduce people to other food cultures, using couscous (a cultural food from Morocco) along with many ingredients which we use in our day to day lives as Kiwi cooks.
I am wondering: If there was a more efficient way to cook the couscous.



The practical was split into three major parts.

Couscous: I was in charge of preparing the couscous. The first step was to sautee the onion and garlic until soft. Jess cut the onion whilst preparing the other vegetables, saving time and equipment (Thanks Jess!). After the onion was soft, the couscous was added and heated until transparent. The next step was to add a mix of vegetable stock and water to the pan for the couscous to cook in. The lid was then put on and left for ten minutes to cook (this actually took about fifteen minutes).

Vegetables: Jess cut the vegetables for the salad. We used cucumber, tomato and spinach. This went really well and was done in very little time.

Dressing: Nadia and Connor were in charge of preparing the dressing. The dressing consisted of lemon zest, lemon juice, pepper, salt and other herbs. The dressing was very lemony, the pepper bringing out the lemon flavor and making it an intense taste. The recipe could do with less lemon juice.



End product: The end product was good. The rest of the salad managed to dilute the dressing flavor enough for it to be enjoyable. We stayed on time and followed the recipe well. I think next time we could add more spinach, cut back on the lemon in the dressing and add some feta.


Nutrition:
This dish almost fits the meal guidelines.
Carbs: Couscous (1 serve)
Vegetables: (1 serve)
Fat: olive oil (1 serve)

Next time I would add some feta (for flavor and dairy) and some chickpeas (plant protein).