Fantastically Fruity Couscous

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know that I am a tiny bit of a dried fruit fanatic. I am also pretty fond of couscous. So I had pretty high hopes for this meal. It is quite simply called, Couscous with Fruit and Nuts.

It may seem quite small for an entire meal, but for some reason, I haven't really been hungry all day! Which is VERY unusual for me. Must have been the amazing breakfast I had. I'm having the same thing tomorrow, and I'll make sure to get a photograph of it. But I digress. The couscous was 'cooked' with vegetable stock, which made for a nice savoury contrast to the sweet fruit. I say 'cooked', because all you're really doing is pouring boiling water (or in this case, stock) over the couscous and leaving it. I love the way that what seems like such a measly amount of couscous can swell into a nice, filling portion of yum! The fruits I used were sultanas and dried apricot. I got a bigger bag of apricot than I planned, but this bag was the same price as a smaller one, and the apricots were already chopped. More apricots to eat, better value for money and less washing up. Can't argue with that! The nut element was toasted flaked almonds. I got untoasted flaked almonds and toasted them myself, because untoasted ones are cheaper. Toasting them didn't take that long, and I saved money again, so it was definitely worth it.

From this...

...to this!

 

My goodies all weighed out and ready to be added.

The bowl of 'yum' ;)

 

 

If you don't like any of the ingredients here, you could easily substitute the sultanas and apricots for other dried fruit and the almonds for other nuts. Even though I like all of the ingredients, I'll still be playing around with substitutions! The one thing I will probably keep the same is soaking the couscous in stock, as it really is a good contrast to the sweet fruit. Maybe I'll vary the stock. Maybe I'll pretend I never typed that and use water anyway like I usually do... no guarantees, but guaranteed to taste good, I'm sure!