Lemon garlic couscous with zucchini and feta
Golden zucchini, garlic and fresh tomato tossed with fluffy lemony couscous and salty feta, on the table in 20 minutes.
- 20 min total
- 15 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 2
- About $3.36 a serving
- 570 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 20 minutes.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 1 zucchini, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1¼ cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup couscous
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- 1 tomato, diced
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- ⅓ cup feta cheese, crumbled
From your pantry
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes
Each serving has about 570 calories, 18 g protein, 80 g carbs and 20 g fat, and costs about $3.36 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No zucchini? Yellow squash works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No tomatoes? Roma tomatoes work.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
- No feta cheese? Goat cheese works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Heat the oil in a large with a lid over medium-high heat. Add the zucchini and salt and cook 5 minutes, stirring only now and then, until .
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 5 min
Add the garlic and pepper flakes and stir 30 seconds, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium-high heat
Pour in the broth and bring it .
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Stir in the couscous, cover, take the pan off the heat and leave it 5 minutes.
Timer: 5 min
Dolly’s tip: Couscous doesn’t need cooking, just soaking in hot liquid. Don’t peek until the timer goes.Fluff with a fork and stir in the lemon , lemon juice, tomato and parsley.
Zest. Zest is the thin, colored outer layer of citrus peel, rubbed off on the smallest holes of a grater. It holds the fruit’s fragrant oils, so it adds bright flavor without the sourness of juice.
How you’ll know: You see bright flecks and smell citrus right away; stop when you reach the white layer, which is bitter.
Serve topped with the feta.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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