It's weird how little I talk about couscous. Couscous means quick, easy, vegetarian dinner here. So we were having one of those nights where you sit on the couch and go back and forth with, "I don't know, what do you want to eat?" And I listed off ingredients we had handy and Sous Chef Brian was like, "Couscous! With artichokes! And spinach!" All irritatingly enthusiastic, and I was like, "Ok, with sundried tomatoes?" And he was like, "Yeah!" All irritatingly enthusiastic. And ten minutes later, we had dinner. Couscous is what we do around here when we're dangerously close to saying, "There's nothing to eat." Are there veg in the freezer? Is there couscous? There's dinner.
To make six servings of couscous and veg, for dinner tonight and lunches throughout the week, start with two cups of stock.

And I had soaked some dried tomatoes in hot water to plump them. They actually weren't "sundried" tomatoes, they were just "dried tomatoes" from Margerum's. They weren't quite raisin-dry, they were more moist to start with and it seemed like they had more flavor in the end. I soaked them in about a half cup of near-boiling water while I got the rest of the food together, so maybe 5 minutes. I chopped those up and added them to the stock and veg, with their soaking water, which was full of tomatoey goodness.
I added some oil and garlic and basil.

After about 5 minutes, I stirred it a bit and added black pepper



- 1.5 cups Couscous
- 2 cups Vegetable stock
- 1/2 cup Very hot water
- 1/4 cup Sundried Tomatoes
- 1.5 cups Frozen (or other non-marinated) artichoke hearts
- 1 cup Blanched or frozen greens (spinach, chard, arugula)
- 1 tablespoon Olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Minced garlic
- 4 teaspoons Minced basil
- 1/4 cup Grated parmesan
- 1 teaspoon Black pepper
- Soak dried tomatoes in very hot water. Set aside.
- Defrost and chop vegetables.
- Add stock (mine is unsalted), oil, artichokes and greens to a large pot. Add dried tomatoes and soaking liquid. Heat to a boil.
- Add couscous, garlic and basil. Stir. Turn off heat. Cover. Let sit 5 minutes.
- Add cheese and black pepper. Stir.
- Serve warm or cold.
- Prep time: 3 mins
- Cook time: 10 mins
- Total time: 10 mins
- Yield: 6 servings