Recipes: Quick and easy roasted vegetable couscous

This is a recipe linked to the article UK Lunch box ideas under £1.50. It's a very simple recipe that requires little effort and is full of fresh vegetables. The couscous in this recipe is left almost plain, but you can throw in any spices you want to add a little kick to it. I've included a few suggestions below.

• 200g Couscous
• 400ml Vegetable stock
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 red onion
• 100g cherry tomatoes
• Olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 220c, 425f.
2. Prepare peppers and onion for roasting. Use a roasting tin or a rimmed baking tray. You can cut the pieces as large or as small as you like but my timings are based on chunkier bites. Drizzle in olive oil.
3. Roast in oven for ten minutes, then get them out and give them a stir, making sure they are nicely coated in the oil.
4. Place the vegetables back in the oven for another 10 minutes and chop your cherry tomatoes into halves.
5. Add the cherry tomatoes to the other roasting vegetables and return to the oven for five more minutes.
6. When the vegetables are done and have cooled it is time to prepare the couscous. Put the couscous in a bowl and add the 400ml of stock. Cover with clingfilm/saran wrap and leave for five minutes.
7. When the couscous has absorbed all the liquid, add the vegetables and and toss through so that any oil that is clinging to the surface of the vegetables coats the couscous.

Serves 2

Couscous is well known as a popular food in Morroco and lends itself to north African flavours. The following are commonly used to spice it up:

• Black pepper
• Paprika
• Cumin
• Coriander
• Cloves
• Nutmeg
• Cardamom
• Saffron

Image credit to Graur Razvan Ionut at www.freedigitalphotos.net