You know how something gets all hyped up, you’re dying to try whatever it is, it seems like years before you finally are able to only to be hugely disappointed with whatever the thing was?
Yeah, that’s not the case with this.
Roasted strawberries. Two words that have been haunting my dreams for weeks (mainly thanks to this) and that are as kickass in real life as they sound.
So much so that I may or may not have licked the baking sheet to get all the juices left behind after transferring them to the serving bowl.
If you were a fly on the wall in my house yesterday you would’ve seen me licking baking sheets during lunchtime making this, pulling my pajama pants (don’t judge) down around 11am when I felt an itch on my upper thigh that kept moving as I scratched it only to find an ant actually in my pants causing it (of all idioms to come true…) and around 7pm, me staring at the bathroom floor completely perplexed at the extra pair of underwear that came out of my workout shorts when I took them off to shower. I somehow went the entire day with an extra pair shoved in between the underwear I was wearing and the underwear sewn into the running shorts even though I went to the bathroom multiple times throughout the day and never noticed. I even went to the store with them shoved up there unknowingly. I wonder how many people were staring at my puffy underwear ass? A true laundry mystery. Needless to say, I was a hot mess.
A hot mess with a delicious side dish though. It was a fair trade. I’d take ants and superfluous underwear in my pants again if it was what stood between me and this.
Whole wheat pearled couscous cooked with orange juice, roasted strawberries, fennel and yellow pepper with lots and lots of basil.
Fruity, summery and fresh. Just beware of insects and rogue undergarments while making.
- ¾ cup whole wheat pearled couscous (Israeli couscous)
- ½ tablespoon coconut oil
- ¾ cup water
- ¾ orange juice
- 1½ cup strawberries, hulled
- ½ bulb of fennel, sliced
- 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
- 2 tablespoons basil, chopped
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 teaspoon honey
- salt & pepper
- In a small sauce pan, heat coconut oil over medium-high heat.
- Add couscous and toss to coat in oil. Toast couscous in sauce pan for 2-3 minutes.
- Add water and orange juice, bring to a boil then cover and reduce to a simmer until liquid is fully absorbed (about 20 minutes). Remove from heat.
- Meanwhile, heat oven to 400 degrees and grease a baking sheet with cooking spray.
- Toss strawberrries, peppers and fennel in a medium bowl with 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt & pepper.
- Spread out onto baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes, tossing occasionally.
- Combine couscous and roasted fruit/vegetables in a medium bowl, toss together with basil and dress with remaining tablespoon of olive oil and honey.
- Season with salt & pepper to taste and serve.
{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
Beautiful pictures as usual! Love the dishes in these pictures. Recipe sounds delicious!
Fact: I may or may not be writing down, bookmarking, adding to my phone, whatever…all your recent vegetarian-friendly recipes :-X I have a plan of attack to christen my kitchen in the new house with foods that my fav bloggers have been making and therefore making me salivate at work. I appreciate your business
OK but seriously, this sounds friggan’ delicious! As always, your photos are just so gorgeous! I have a similar set up for food photos as you do, I might need to try making a board though!
LOL!! I love your writing style, personality, and sense of humor. Duly noted to watch out for the ants and superfluous undies whilst cooking!!
That does look like an amazing side dish, and I love strawberries!
Roasted strawberries?? Sounds amazing!! Off to buy strawberries!
When I was in highschool, I had an extra pair of panties (which got stuck via static electricity) fall out the leg of my jeans and onto highschool floor. I snapped em up before (I think) anyone saw. Static electricity’s a real bummer. Awesome couscous salad! Definitely sounds refreshing!
ok, this one is worse. in HIGH SCHOOL?!?! well, damn. Glad no one saw!
I have to agree with Cat, high school would’ve been way more traumatizing than my own bathroom with no one else in it! But thanks for that laugh!
Loving the new photo table!
let’s be honest, who HASN’T had an extra pair of underwear stuck in their pants/shorts? The ant, though? I’d be having nightmares. That’s just fucking creepy.
I felt like there were things crawling on me for the remainder of the day. Gross. Although out of all bugs, I’ll take an ant over some of the other possibilities.
I love all things couscous!!
That is so funny! That reminded me of a time when I was wearing my school uniform and my skirt got caught in my panties after I went out of the bathroom. Awkward! I am in love with roasted strawberries too… I have just tried it after reading Joy’s Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Cake post… It was lovely even though I did not bake the cake long enough and it was still kinda wet at the top. I have to remake it soon and properly the second time around. Now, I am curious to try the roasted strawberries with dinner food!
I saw her recipe for that, looked delicious! I’ve definitely had the skirt tucked into the underwear thing happen to me too before. I think I had pushed it out of my memory but now that you mention it, yeah it definitely happened.
I adore pearled couscous but can’t find it anywhere except in little 3.5 oz packages… lame. This looks fantastic.
And I’m not judging, I’ve had the underwear thing happen to myself too. And another time at a logging show I wore the same Carhartt’s two days in a row and the first days undies were stuck in the pant leg only to come out halfway through an event…in front of 150 people. Your puffy underooed ass is safe.
You guys have TJ’s out there don’t you? They have it, not in whole wheat (that I’ve found) but they do have regular Israeli couscous in the stores by me.
So glad others can relate to the rogue underwear experience. Luckily, Ginger was my only audience and not 150 loggers! haha
This may or may not have made me laugh out loud in my cubicle. Did I get a few dirty looks? I did! Do I care? No. Because not only is this post hysterical (and I *totally* relate), this recipe looks deeeeelish! I will be trying this soon!
Got a good laugh out of this one
Of all the idioms to come true hahah. I’ve seen roasted strawberries and roasted grapes lately. Both of which you have now actually conquered while I’m still just dreaming about them.
Doooo it
Roasted Strawberry Couscous looks so delicious… I love the presentation! Beautifully created. I read the recipe and I think this is very interesting to cook. I will try this on this coming weekend.
You are hilarious! I’d rather have an extra pair of underwear in my pants than toilet paper hanging out of them!
I have to try the roasted strawberries. This dish just sounds so fantastic, alot of wonderful flavors going on in there!
kind of hilarious about that ant in your pants. And I’ve never had underwear stuck in my clothes but I’ve VERY frequently found dryer sheets in my shorts/pants even after wearing them all day long
I have a roasted fruit post coming up! I had been eyeing Jessica’s post, too, and re-reading my Heidi Swanson/101cooks cookbook and her roasted berries. And now yours….yum to the roasted strawberries! Gorgeous plates and styling, too!
I am loving roasted fruit this summer already. This is my kind of dish!
All the comments above made me laugh almost as much as the ant in the pant story. The underwear thing has yet to happen to me, but there may or may not be a pair or two behind my couch (don’t worry they’re clean and fell during laundry sorting) that I’m just too lazy to move the couch and fetch. So yeah. You’re welcome.
HA! The underwear story had me dying. That totally sounds like something I would do/have done.!! Did you squash the ant?
of course! he didn’t stand a chance
Another I’ve never… I’ve never roasted strawberries but earlier today I thought about how much I REALLY want to. And I want to be a non gross (because I hate flies) fly on your wall lol. I’d have died laughing watching you lick your pans. And just be glad the extra undies didn’t come out while walking around a store ha! :p
Um, I need this. Now. Not when I have time to shop, but now. YUM. Must try ASAP.
I’ve been meaning to roast some strawberries too! They never last long enough, but I really want to try them that way. Also, I just found Israeli couscous after like, 2 years of looking locally(that should tell you something about how tiny my town and surrounding area is, haha) Can’t wait to try it!
I think I’m totally missing out by not roasting my strawberries. I need to hop on board and see what this is all about! I can totally see how this is amazeballs though. The juices from the strawberries and the roasting effect. Yum, I can get behind this! Especially with your addition of cous cous. Love it. Oh, and you know what else I love? Your 2nd pic of those strawberries! Beautiful!
So glad I read this! I have been similarly slayed by fear that roasting my strawberries would not make them as delicious as I imagine…time to actually try it!
Delicious kind of foods..I cant wait to try it..Thank you for sharing..
Why did I never think to roast a flippin’ strawberry? I roast everything else. My house is under construction right now and I have no cooktop and no sink – just an oven. I’m making the strawberries tonight, and the couscous this weekend when my cooktop arrives!
Gina, I was cracking up when I read this post! I sat thru half of a Dodger game before I noticed an extra pair of underwear in my sweat pants leg. I had nowhere to put them, so I just tried to make them as inconspicuous as possible! Glad to know I’m not the only one!!
This recipe looks great… can’t wait to try it.
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