Curried Couscous with Roasted Veggies & Cilantro Yogurt Sauce

INGREDIENTS:real icon

Cilantro yogurt

  • 3 c.  fresh cilantro leaves
  • 1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
  • 3/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 c. plain whole-milk yogurt
  • 1/2 c. sour cream

Roasted vegetables

  • Nonstick cooking spray
  • 2 1-pound eggplants, unpeeled, cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 6 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 1/4 pounds medium summer squash, cut into rounds
  • 3 large red bell peppers

Couscous

  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 Tbsp. curry powder
  • 3 c. water
  • 2 c. (12 ounces) plain couscous
  • 1/2 c. coarsely chopped roasted salted cashews
  • 1/4 c. dried currants
INSTRUCTIONS:

For yogurt:
Combine cilantro, lime juice, and salt in processor; blend to coarse puree. Transfer to bowl; mix in yogurt and sour cream. Season with pepper.

For vegetables:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray 2 large baking sheets with nonstick spray. Mound eggplant cubes on 1 sheet; drizzle with 4 tablespoons oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss to coat. Spread out evenly. Mound zucchini on second sheet; drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss to coat. Spread out evenly. Roast eggplant and zucchini until golden and tender, turning occasionally with spatula, about 25 minutes for zucchini and 50 minutes for eggplant. Transfer vegetables to bowl and cool.

Meanwhile, char peppers directly over gas flame or in broiler until blackened on all sides. Enclose in paper bag; let stand 10 minutes. Peel and seed peppers. Cut 2peppers into 1-inch pieces.

For couscous:
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté until soft, about 6 minutes. Mix in curry powder; stir 1 minute. Add 3 cups water; bring to simmer. Cover; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer curry water 10 minutes.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large pot. Add couscous and stir constantly until color darkens and couscous is toasted, about 3 minutes. Mix in hot curry water. Turn off heat, cover pot, and let stand until couscous is tender and curry water is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Fluff couscous with fork to separate grains. Mix in cashews and currants and cool completely. Mix in eggplant, zucchini, and bell pepper pieces. Season salad to taste with salt and pepper.

Mound salad on large platter. Serve with cilantro yogurt and chutney.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s