Grilled Halloumi with Spiced Couscous

I had long decided that dinners at home should not be limited to the easy and the usual. There was a time when we stuck to the same few dishes we knew well, and that was it. The problem though, with one of us being a vegetarian and the other being as passionate about meat as one can possible get over a food group, it did require some effort and imagnation to find new reicpes to satisfy both.

Last weekend, it was decided that couscous would be on the menu and I was charged with finding a suitable recipe. It must be said that I have never cooked with couscous before, nor do I often consume couscous. If I thought long and hard enough about it, I can probably count the number of times I have had it, and that number can in all probability be counted on the fingers of one hand. Nevertheless, I scoured the internet undaunted. I say scoured, but really, what I mean is googled "couscous recipes" and went through two or three hits. One of them being this, a BBC Good Food recipe:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1816/grilled-halloumi-with-spiced-couscous

It sounded interesting to some extent. The vegetarian of our duo is a big halloumi fan, while I am somewhat undecided about it. It is certainly a good cheese to grill, but it is way too salty for my taste and not that easy to cook. Undercooked it is rubbery and squeky, overcook it and it is rubbery and squeky. Cook it perfectly but let it cool too long before eating, or taking too long to finish it (as is usually the case with me) and it gets rubbery and squeky. What I was uncertain about was also the tastiness of steamed vegetables and raw tomatoes in the couscous. That would certainly be the healtier option, but I was after tastiness. That aside, I followed the recipe in so far as the ingredients and the general intstructions were concerned, but tweaked it a bit. In hindsight though, I doubt it really made that much difference and it would have probably tasted just as yummy following the recipe. Which is to say that I enjoyed it and will more likely than not make it again at some point.

Anyway, here´s my version:

Ingredients (for two servings):
1 head broccoli (a small head would do)
a handful of sugar snap peas
a handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
175 g couscous (initially thought that this was not enough, but it turned out to be way too much. I might actually reduce this to at least 150g the next time I make it, if not less)
300ml vegetable stock
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground fennel (not in the original recipe)
juice of half a lemon

Method:
1. First, boil the brocolli for a minute, the Í add the sugar snap peas and boil for another half a minute. (In the original recipe, the vegetables are steamed, but as we do not have a steamer...)
2. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan, then sauteé tomatoes until just soft. Add the boiled vegetables and spice mix and stir until spices relatively evenly distributed.
3. In the meantime, added vegetable stock to couscous and leave to soak for about 5 minutes, until liquid is fully absorbed by the couscous. Add some water and salt if necessary. Then add lemon juice and stir.
4. When couscous is almost ready, fry halloumi with a little bit of olive oil until brown (as in picture).
5. Plate and enjoy!