Created by Chef Max Shapiro
I have been making this recipe for the last ten plus years. I first made this for the Chef benefit in 2000 for the Slow Food Movement at Kennedy Manor in Madison. (Feel free to change the vegetables and herbs with the seasons).
Ingredients:
- 11/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup couscous or yellow cornmeal
- 1 pound chopped and seeded tomatoes with juice
- 1 medium onion, sliced thin
- 4 medium mushrooms, sliced thin
- 1 small red sweet pepper, cored, seeded and sliced into 1/4 inch wide strips
- 1 medium yellow squash, sliced thin, about ½ a pound
- 2 medium carrots peeled and sliced thin
- ½ cup cooked and drained chick peas
- 1 ½ tsp dried basil, crumbled, or fresh
- 1/4 tsp. fresh cracked pepper
- salt to taste
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, bring chicken broth to a boil. Remove the saucepan from heat, add couscous and stir constantly with a fork until the mixture is thick. About 5 minutes.
- Grease a round 2-quart casserole dish and spoon the couscous into it. Using a large spoon or wet hands, push and flatten the couscous up the side of the dish to within a ½ inch from the rim. Set aside.
- In a medium size saucepan over low heat simmer tomatoes for about 6 minutes. Add onion, mushrooms, red pepper, yellow squash, carrot, basil, and pepper; stir and cover. Simmer for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender but still crisp.
- Spoon the vegetables into the casserole , cover with tin foil, bake for 1 hour. Serve directly from the dish, or cool for 15 minutes and gently loosen the crust with a thin metal spatula, and invert onto a serving platter.
