Leftover couscous

"It's couscous. It's like the Giving Tree of food."

smoogstag (Justin V.)/reddit

Apologies to Jean-Emile Laurent the artist of this rather wonderful painting - I cropped it a little to focus in on the couscous, and ignored the figures at the bottom of the painting.

I have some leftover couscous from Monday's lunch - just a little really - and I don't know what to do with it. Well I know I could just reheat it and serve as is, but surely, I thought, I can do something more imaginative, so I have just finished trawling the net for ideas.

Of course I had some of my own ideas, but wanted to see if the net had better - it should after all - and also whether my ideas - stuffing and possibly fried in some way - were valid. And of course, there were lots, although they did fall into a few distinct categories. But yes:

"Couscous is like the world's most perfect culinary blank slate. You can add almost anything to it, heat it or don't, dress it however you like, and eat it." Smoogstag/reddit (Justin V.)

And indeed I could just reheat it in the microwave - confirmed by another reddit commenter - Andydav:

"It's probably worth mentioning that you can do with leftover couscous anything you can with fresh. It doesn't suffer from 'microwave depression' like other foods do."

And I did think of doing just that - reheating in the microwave to serve with whatever I do with the bit of rump steak I have rescued from the freezer, and a red capsicum that is just about to go on the turn. Indeed I may still do that. But there must be other things. After all surely every Mediterranean housewife, who regularly serves couscous at mealtimes, must have ways to use up the leftovers. And of course she does.

A note before I begin on my list of suggestions. I soon realised that leftover - for couscous anyway - can be taken in two different ways - leftover cooked couscous - if you can call what you do with instant couscous cooking - or a bit of uncooked couscous left in a packet. Needless to say I am talking about the pre-cooked kind, but some of these recipes may actually be using uncooked couscous. I included these because they still had to 'cook' the couscous before proceeding with the rest of the recipe. I am also only talking about the instant kind here - not the larger pearl couscous, which I have yet to try.

Let me get salads out of the way - because this is what a large number of people do with leftover couscous. Basically just mix with something and dress with something. Good things to add?:

"Couscous likes things like dried fruit and almonds and “sweet spices,” turmeric, and ginger.  It also loves  mint, onion, garlic, allium flavors and broths and essences.  It’s extremely versatile." Afroculinaria

This author - MIchael W. Twitty a black American from the deep south of the USA did have a recipe for Leftover couscous salad - which would serve as an example I guess. As he says:

"PLAY with this recipe.  This is edible jazz!!!  IMPROVISE!  DANCE IT!"

Nigel Slater, however had a couple of more precise recipes, but he also had some general advice which is a little more specific than dancing in the kitchen:

"My rule with any couscous salad is that there must, absolutely must, be twice the volume of herbs, fruit and vegetables as couscous. The more parsley, tomatoes, sprouted seeds, radishes etc the better. And I do use the instant variety of couscous, not merely to wind up the purists, but because life is too short not to."

His recipes? - Turkey couscous which also involves leftover Christmas turkey and Chicken couscous salad which might sound the same but really isn't. And yes, this kind of salad really is a blank canvas. Like a pasta or rice salad I guess. And the various commenters I came across here and there, seemed to know what to do with salad, but wanted some other ideas.

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I now think that probably what those Mediterranean housewives were doing is making fritters, or balls - like arancini, from the very simple ones in which the couscous is just combined with some grated cheese and then breadcrumbed before frying like Kathy Bergeet of the Beyond the Chicken Coop's, Couscous cheddar cakes to more complicated ones such as Moroccan couscous cakes - Kevin/Silk Road Recipes and Sami Tamimi's Quick and easy couscous fritters with preserved lemon yoghurt on the House and Garden website - from his book Boustany.

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Two other recipes that I found were sort of similar in concept: Crispy couscous pancake with tomato and onion - Nagi Maehashi/Recipe Tin Eats - based on Ottolenghi recipe, which was not the same thing at all - just the flavours, and Crunchy couscous galette - Grace Parisi/Food and Wine, although perhaps I should also include here Easy egg fried rice - Fuss Free Flavours - a stir fry but with couscous not rice.

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Ottolenghi also had a Giant couscous cake - but it used the giant couscous as well as being a giant cake. Have given you the picture and the recipe though, because it looks so good. And maybe I should also add here, a Guardian reader Julia Austin's Spanish-style eggs with couscous.  The couscous is a fried base for the eggs.

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And speaking of cake, there were lots of recipes for sweet cakes. This is just one example from Thermomix - Couscous cake with fruit. Well there are lots of cakes with rice in them, so why not couscous?

Then there was stuffing. I confess that my first thought had indeed been to stuff that red capsicum with a couscous kind of stuffing - the same sort of thing as these Gremolata couscous-stuffed peppers from Sylvana Franco on the BBC website but you can stuff anything really, and I found a generic recipe for Vibrant couscous stuffing from another Guardian reader - Marmaduke Scarlet; not to mention as an afterthought - although it should have been my first thought - Claudia Roden and her classic Ferakh Maamer which translates as Poussin with couscous stuffing in which the stuffing can either be in the chicken or served with it.

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Or, as I said at the beginning I might just reheat it and serve with the beef dish. Or - to be a bit more adventurous - stir fry it in with the beef and the red capsicum. Plus harissa or chermoula or something similar. Mmm.

YEARS GONE BY

November 7

2025 - Wasting time

2024 - Hospital food

2023 - Nothing

2022 - Genteel sandwiches on the lawn

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - Sauce Béarnaise

2018 - Nothing

2017 - Why pine nuts are so expensive

2016 - Onions of spring