Lemony Veggie Couscous

Before today’s post, a couple of updates:

I have added a professional background page to my About page; check it out if you get a chance.

Today my first guest post on CRAVE Boston was published. It covers one of Boston’s best wine shops, The Wine Bottega, and you can check it out here:

http://thecravecompany.com/boston/2010/08/05/thewinebottegaboston/

Recreating my meal at zazu was what I had in mind when I started in on this Israeli couscous creation, and I must admit, I was quite successful. Minus, of course, the beautiful Santa Rosa scenery and TasteLive! friends.

On Saturday night, I opened the windows, put on some Grateful Dead, and got to cooking this delicious dish.

I cut 3 medium sized zucchinis into thin discs, then slowly sautéed them on a very low heat with a sweet farmers’ market onion. 

In the meantime, I took an entire box of Israeli couscous and mixed it with a few teaspoons of olive oil, garlic powder, and black pepper and allowed it to start to toast over a low flame. Then I squeezed in the juice of three lemons (would use at least two more next time!) and then added a couple cups of hot water to allow the couscous to cook all the way through.

To the zucchini I added semi-cooked corn and raw heirloom tomatoes, then some olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper.

I squeezed half of a lemon over the cooking veggies, then combined everything and topped it off with a good pour of olive oil.

Such an easy, flavorful, and filling vegetarian recipe. It was no zazu, but it was close and quite delicious. I will keep working on it to see if I can make it more up to zazu standards, but until then, I have a new vegetarian dinner in my repertoire, and you can’t beat that.

Do you have a favorite restaurant meal you have tried to recreate? Where was it from, and how did you do?