Recipe: spring couscous

I will try to write down some of the recipes I grabbed from local papers, so that I can toss the paper before we return to Alaska. Here is one that I like for couscous with asparagus, and Martin is impartial to (better than hating it, since he does not particularly like couscous). In the recipe, the couscous was accompanying a white fish that was just fried in butter with a little salt, but I also just had it for lunch today without anything else. It is from the weekly Coopzeitung, a info-zine put up by Coop, the equivalent of Safeway or Fred Meyers.


Spring couscous
- Couscous
1/2 Tbs olive oil
3 spring onions, cut into big pieces (their spring onions are much larger and somewhat milder than the regular scallions we're used to in the states, 3 of them is "one bunch")
1 lb green asparagus, bottom third of it peeled to get rid of the stringy cover, cut into inch-or-so pieces
1 1/2 c water
3/4 Tbs salt
1/2 lb couscous
- Dressing
1 lime, zested and juiced
2 Tbs olive oil
- Garnish
2 Tbs fresh peppermint, chopped

Put the olive oil into a pan, when it gets hot, add the onions. When they get soft, add asparagus. Add water (I used boiling water), spice with salt and pepper. Take the pan off heat, add the couscous, cover, and let sit for about 5 minutes. In the meanwhile, mix the ingredients for the dressing, then fluff the couscous with a fork and mix in the dressing. Garnish with mint.

I made it in a modified version, with white asparagus instead of green (the little store here had no green asparagus left today at noon), no mint, but it is a nice and easy couscous recipe that I will make again.