I love colors in my food. In fact,the more colors the better. There is a time and place when a simple palette is necessary, whether that be a quick piece of toast with a slab of peanut butter as you run out to start your day, or a uncomplicated apple to soothe your tortured hunger during a lecture...there are times when one's life is so complicated that the food must only act as a forerunner to help one get through the various events we must combat each day.BUT NOT TODAY. Today, we shall feast on an ambitious array of ingredients that beautifully harmonize one another in one plate, 'The Fall Favorite Pumpkin Couscous.' Interesting name for a dish? Well, not really. I entered a food competition last fall with best friend Liv, and the secret ingredient was a pumpkin. We had to do something out of the ordinary, and make it vegan for extra points, so we decided to just play around with a bunch of ingredients that would shock the masses, yet hit that soft spot and force them to realize, "Its so wrong...yet so incredibly right!" Liv put two and two together and came up with the name.
Well, this dish kind of speaks for itself, so I will not narrate the day any further or you will be reading this food blog all day. Here ya go!
Ingredients:
-2 small pumpkins
-1.5 Cups Dried Mango
-1 box of whole wheat couscous
-1 onion
-Cinnamon
-Ginger
-Salt
-Basil
-3 Cups Raw Spinach
-3 Large Carrots
-Olive Oil
-Agave
-Soy Sauce
-Peanut Butter
The Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. Cut the pumpkins in half, and remove the seeds and save them in a bowl.
3. Place the pumpkin halves face down in a pan filled with 1 inch of water. Let the pumpkin cook in the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until all the way cooked. (It only took my pumpkins a little less than 20 minutes to be very cooked, but I have a ve
ry old oven that likes to get hotter than it really says.)
4. Boil 2 cups of water in a small pot with the dried mango. Once at a boil, turn down the heat to low, sprinkle ginger in top, turn heat
off and let sit.
5. Cook the couscous either in a rice cooker or over the stove. Before cooking it, sprinkle a lot of ginger, salt, pepper, andbasil to flavor the bland taste.
6. Once the pumpkin is cooled, cut the skin off. The pumpkin will most likely remove from the skin very easily. Chop the cooled pumpkin in
to 1 inch by 1 inch cubes.
7. Wash the saved pumpkin seeds, and remove all pulp. Let them sit in water for at least an hour. Place the seeds on a baking sheet and coat them with olive oil. Sprinkle garlic salt, brown sugar, and cinnamon on them. Let them bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until all the way cooked.
8. Chop up your onions and slice your carrots. Heat a pan on high with olive oil and caramelize and cook the carrots together. Sprinkle somegarlic powder and basil over them. Once cooked, add about two tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of agave, and 1 tablespoon of peanut butter. Stir in the raw spinach, it will cook down. Turn the heat on low.
9. Remove Mango from heat and chop into smaller chunks. Add to the stir-fry mixture.
10. Season the pumpkin with salt, pepper, cinnamon, and a little bit of brown sugar. Do this my sprinkling everything over the chopped pieces and make sure to rub all of the flavor in.
11. Add the pumpkin to the stir-fry mixture and combine everything over low heat.
12. In a large serving pan, stir together the stir-fry, couscous, and cooked pumpkin seeds.
This makes a great side-dish or perhaps main course. Though we did not win the over-all competition, in our hearts, Liv and I knew that we had created an extremely sustainable and vegan dish, using only ingredients I already had in my pantry and refrigerator. There were not any leftovers, so I guess the audience felt the same way as us! Enjoy this whimsical and healthy dish!
