Dateline: February 23, 2021 Vegetarian Couscous Redux

I had been jonesing for that couscous dish again.  I had in mind some tweaks, and so, I did it.  The original recipe is a Melissa Clark Creamy chickpeas and pearl couscous .  This version used collards, tuscan kale, chickpeas, cannelloni beans, roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, plum tomatoes, canned tomatoes, preserved lemon, garlic, shallot, red wine, balsamic vinegar, chicken stock, and of course, pearl couscous.

I started as Ms. Clark suggests, pre-roasting the tomatoes, shallots, wine, vinegar in a 450° F oven.  While that was going on, I chopped the collards and kale, preserved lemon, roasted peppers, sun dried tomatoes, and heated the stock.  I then added in the couscous, greens, beans, lemon, peppers and tomatoes and the boiling stock.  Mixed well, covered with foil and back into the oven it went for about 20 minutes.

The feta got drained and chopped in the meantime and after the 20 or so minutes, it got added into the casserole and mixed in.  Foil was removed and it was back into the oven for a final cook.  I went a few minutes longer than suggested because there was a bit more soupiness as I didn't drain canned tomatoes and used more couscous than called for.  Final dusting of cilantro and dinner was done.  This was still delicious.

Dateline: February 15, 2021 Vegetarian Sheet-Pan #3

In rummaging through the pantry, I came across a box of Israeli couscous.  That then sent me on an expedition into what to do with it.  I came across Melissa Clark's Couscous with Feta Cheese on NYT Cooking.  Using it as a framework, I tweaked it, naturally, of course.  

I had a bunch of collard greens, which I sliced into ribbons after taking out the thick stem in the center.  I didn't have a pint of fresh cherry tomatoes, so I used 2 cans diced tomatoes and I added 1 red finger pepper chopped up, a couple of oil cured sun dried tomatoes, vegetable stock, 1 can chickpeas.

This is the set up before baking.  After the suggested time, I then added in the pearled couscous and stock and put it back in the oven again.  After the suggested time, it was still a bit soupy, so I returned to the oven again.  I pulled it out and then crumbled in the feta cheese, stirred, and returned to the oven again to melt/soften up the cheese.

Finished product with its garnish of cilantro.

This was a real keeper.  I was absolutely amazed at it.  It had the necessary spice for me, courtesy of the red finger pepper and I could hardly believe that it was vegetarian.  Not vegan because of the cheese, but that could be remedied easily by using tofu or other substitute.

Husband unit loved it.