Freelicious Corn Couscous

The food so nice they named it twice.

Now I have never eaten cous cous before as it only really became popular and common after I found out that I had Coeliac disease, so this review is purely based on the product alone as I have nothing to compare it to.

As cous cous is essentially the germ of the wheat grain where all the gluten is found, pure gluten delicious! So making a GF substitute of gluten should be interesting and my expectations of this product are not high.

I found this at a Coles supermarket retailing at $3.25 for 375g it's not going to break the bank for something that will keep well and can be used for several different servings. 

 

Now as I have never eaten cous cous before, let alone have ever cooked it I decided to follow the suggested recipe on the back of the box to be safe.

It is actually dead simple to make. Boil a cup of stock

I used Massel Liquid Chicken Stock it's about $2 for a litre. It can be bought at most supermarkets and in powder form as well, it's also vegan!

  Opening the packet the cous cous looks a lot like polenta and yellow sugar. Kinda like jelly crystals, leaving me unsure what to expect.

Once the water has boiled add about 1 1/3 cups of cous cous and remove from the heat imediately, stir and let rest for 2 mins. Add some butter and stir and leave to cool. Then add oil (1/4 cup, I think this is a little excessive and you probably don't need that much since there is butter also in it).

It should look like this.

 I had a little taste before adding anything else. It's strange taste, I can't think of anything else that is like it, the butter definitely has given it most of it's flavor. It's not disgusting and is pleasantly light and fluffy. Most importantly it's not gluggy as I was fearing it would be. The texture is still 'grainy' as you can feel each 'cous' as you eat it.

I added some nice fresh basil straight from the parents garden, home grown tomato, finely diced onion and feta.

   Taa Daa!

Chuck all the stuff in raw and stir.

Wow this is actually quite nice, as there is next to no cooking involved it is really quick and easy to make. With the raw tomato and onion it tastes so fresh. Perfect side dish! I wouldn't say this is main meal worthy.

My lovely mother cooked BBQ Lamb (a cut of some description, I don't know and neither does she). Perfect accompaniment, would be absolutely perfect in summer. Yummo 

The rest of my Gluten eating family even loved it. I had seconds.

I'm not sure if this is as healthy as regular cous cous due to the large amount of butter and oil in it. I would still definitely recommend trying this, and can't wait to try it in other ways.

What's your favorite way to eat and serve Cous cous?