How to Cook Perfect Couscous without a Couscous Steamer

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Simple, quick and easy, perfect couscous. From this basic recipe, you can go anywhere with the flavours and how to serve your couscous. Perfect with tagines of course but also great served with curries and amazing as a salad anytime of the year, whether warm, cold or at room temperature.

Couscous

Check out this Pesto Couscous Salad:

Pesto Couscous Salad (15-minute Pantry Recipe)
Pesto Couscous Salad is easy and quick, perfect for a a quick, hassle free lunch and great lunchbox idea for both kids and adults.
Get the Recipe!
Pesto Couscous Salad, a lunchbox recipe

Make Ahead: Treat it like you would cooked rice, If you’re planing to serve it warm, reheat it very gently in the microwave oven or on the stove for a minute or two. On the stove, just fry it without any oil, oil will encourage clumping.

To jazz up this plain couscous, you can add vegetables, nuts, seeds, dried fruit or cheese, there are so many ways to go with this. However, if I’m serving it with tagine, I prefer to leave it fairly plain, so that it can show off the flavour of the tagine. For ideas on what you can serve couscous with, take a look at the following:

Lamb Tagine with Olives using Welsh Lamb
An easy lamb tagine with olives. Can be cooked in a regular saucepan.
Get the Recipe!
Kefta Mkaouara (Moroccan Meatball and Egg Tagine)
Kefta Mkaouara is a Moroccan Meatball Tagine recipe, lightly spiced meatballs are cooked in a tomato sauce with eggs over easy.
Get the Recipe!
meatballs and poached eggs in tomato sauce in a tagine

If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Thank you!

And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood

Lin xx

Couscous

How to Cook Perfect Couscous

Simple, quick and easy, perfect couscous recipe, without the use of a traditional couscous steamer.
4.99 from 70 votes
Print Pin Add to Collection
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Moroccan (North African)
Keyword: couscous, moroccan
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 7 minutes
Servings: 6 (Serves 4-6)
Calories: 268kcal
Author: Azlin Bloor

Ingredients

  • 400 g couscous
  • 1 tbsp salted butter
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 500 ml boiling water

Instructions

  • Heat the butter in a saucepan on medium high heat and fry the couscous for about 2 minutes until lightly fragrant.
  • Add salt and stir to mix.
  • Take the saucepan off the heat and leave to cool for a minute to reduce the splattering when pouring the boiling water.
  • Pour the boiling water onto the couscous in the pan, stir and cover with a lid. Stand a little away from the pan in case the couscous does splatter, you don’t want to get burnt.
  • Leave to stand, covered, undisturbed for 5 minutes.
  • After the 5 minutes, get a fork (not a spoon) and gently fluff up the couscous thoroughly. TIP: Using a spoon will result in clumps.

Nutrition

Calories: 268kcal | Carbohydrates: 52g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 415mg | Potassium: 111mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 59IU | Calcium: 19mg | Iron: 1mg
Did you make this recipe?Mention @azlinbloor and tag #linsfood!
Made it? Upload your photosMention @azlinbloor and tag #linsfood!

Share this with someone who'll love it!

4 thoughts on “How to Cook Perfect Couscous without a Couscous Steamer”

  1. These are awesome tips to preparing the perfect cous cous. I always feel a little nervous cooking it just right, so these tips will serve me well 🙂

  2. Thank you , I will now make it perfect.I alwaus wondered if one can toast couscous, now I know I can.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating