Roast vegetables on couscous with Moroccan tomato sauce

Sometimes all you can manage when you stand in front of the kitchen is to assemble food, rather than really cook it or get too fancy. On the week that the magazine I edit goes to press (ie, the dreaded... deadline week!), that pretty much sums me up as a cook.

Mind you, the whole point of having good ingredients on hand, such as organic veg, high quality olive oil and a good supply of fresh herbs is that even the most simple of dishes is going to be pretty tasty. Or at least good for you...

Since this has been that very week, I present to you my latest assemblage!

Roast vegetables on couscous with Moroccan tomato sauce

There are four very simple components that go together to make this, and you'll end up with a hearty, filling, tasty and very likely nutritious dish that looks a lot fancier than it is. You've got roast vegetables, a bed of couscous, the tomato-based sauce, and some greens to add visual interest and in this case a really interesting flavour and mouth feel.

ingredients

Two kipfler potatoes

Two carrots

Four single clove garlic

One garlic clove

One whole beetroot (reserve the leaves)

Green beans

Ripe tomatoes

Coriander

Small red onion

Ground cumin

Ground coriander seeds

Cup of couscous

Half a cup of chicken stock

Salt & pepper

Olive oil

Tackle the longest step first - chop up your veg for roasting, peel the single clove garlic (don't bother chopping) and toss through some olive and season with salt and pepper. Get it going at normal roasting temp for your oven, and move on to the other ingredients.

For the tomato sauce you need to get a three tablespoons of olive oil heating in a pan, and then add finely chopped red onion. As it's starting to soften, add more salt and pepper, the ground cumin and coriander, and chopped fresh coriander. Finely chop up the tomatoes - about three medium size will do you - and add to the pan.

Add a touch more oil if the sauce is looking too dry, and cook the tomato down.

When that's done, transfer to a bowl and put aside. Next!

The couscous can take a little time, so get that going next. Simply add a cup to a sauce pan, and then pour over a cup of hot water out of the tap and the stock - so that's half a cup of water, half of stock. This needs to rest, and let the couscous soak up the liquid, so get cracking on the greenery!

You could use english spinach here, but since we've got the leaves from the beetroot - and they are edible - there's no sense in wasting them. Chop the crunchy stems up into inch long sections, add to the pan you've just removed the sauce from, along with a bit more oil and some sliced garlic. Roughly tear the leaves into two or three pieces, and after a minute or two add them to the stems. When the leaves start to wilt, the stems should be cooked but still crunchy, and garlic should just be browning. Take off the heat, and arrange around two plates.

Brush the green beans with some olive oil, and toss on top of the roasting veg.

The couscous is ready to heat now, so add either some rancid butter, olive oil or a dash of blue cheese. Rancid butter is traditional, but not something you can usually sell your friends on ("It's rancid-fresh!") - even traditional cooks tend toward the blue cheese option these days, and it delivers a similar complex flavour. Olive oil will do, and since you've used stock the couscous will be tasty regardless.

Warm the couscous over a low heat the stove, mixing whatever ingredient you've added thoroughly. Stir constantly, as you don't want it to stick and burn on in the ban. Taste test, then plate it up in a mound in the center of the plate.

Your veg should be done by now, so take it out of the oven and make a tasty stack on top of the couscous. Pour the tomato sauce over the veg, and the job's a good 'un.

And pretty tasty, too, though I really did wish I had some blue cheese on hand for the couscous - there are some very heavy, stolid flavours in this dish and the cheese would have given the meal some needed bite.

The big success, however, were the beetroot leaves, which have a lovely fulsome nutty flavour. It's not dissimilar to spinach, so I suspect the leaves would be even better with a dash of nutmeg. My friend Blu has an excellent warm beetroot leaf salad with crunchy croûton that I'm going to have to try some time.

Otherwise this a great meal after a long cold day - warming, filling, and pretty damn healthy to boot.

Broccoli, Aglio, olio et peperonchino

The last thing you want to do when you get home from work is cook up a meal that's going to leave you slaving away in the kitchen for hours when you'd rather be relaxing. Or, in some cases, shooting complete strangers online. Which is why this one's such a regular dish in my repertoire. I picked it up off a cooking show years ago and it's been a keeper ever since.

The important thing here is fresh ingredients. You can get away with dried chillis or slightly wilted broccoli, but you'll be doing yourself and the dish a dis-service. Good olive oil is also a plus, otherwise, this one's dead easy.

Broccoli, Aglio, olio et peperonchino

In other words, it's a broccoli pasta with garlic and chilli in olive oil. It's pretty much as simple as it sounds, and the name is pretty much also the ingredients list!

ingredients

Rotini (or spiral) pasta

Two heads of broccoli

Two or three cloves of garlic

Two or three hot birdseye chillies

Parsley

Oil

Pepper

Parmesan

A much easier proposition than my last effort!

Get a pot of salted water boiling away, and while you're waiting for a good rolling boil, chop up the broccoli, basically separating each branch without leaving too much stalk - maybe an inch at most. Toss the broccoli into the boiling water, leave for a couple of minutes or until it starts to simmer again and remove broccoli, but keep the water.

This is blanching - it brightens the colour of the brocolli, and heightens the flavour, but the trick is to be quick. You don't want boiled broccoli mush! It should still be very firm. You keep the water because you want that subtle broccoli flavour for the pasta.

When the water's boiled again add your pasta. Spiral's the best choice, because it'll really work with the sauce and looks great alongside the broccoli. Those who make their perception tests might notice I've mixed spirals and penne - that's more a case of lack of foresight than anything else, as we had less pasta in the pantry than I realised.

While the pasta's coming along, chop everything else up very finely - garlic, chilli and parsley. generously oil a frying pan and add the chopped ingredients, then add heat. You don't want to fry the herbs, but warm them as the oil warms. Add the drained broccoli, and toss through the oil. If you've timed things right, you can drain the pasta and add it straight to the pan, otherwise remove the pan from the heat to make sure you don't end up with crunchy garlic.

With everything in the pan, stir it all through vigorously. You want everything nice and shiny with the oil, and you'll note a lot of garlic and tastiness sticking in the spirals of the pasta - that's why we want spirals!

Remove from heat, plate up in a bowl, grate or shave some Parmesan over the top and add freshly cracked pepper.

This is a brilliant dish on so many fronts. It's super-tasty, and the brightness of good hot chillies goes really well with the smooth broccoli flavour. It's also really healthy, with a huge hit of vitamins C, K and A. The speed of the dish is a plus, and with a crisp white wine it's a real palate-pleaser.

Without the broccoli, it's also a classic pasta dish in its own right.