Summer Couscous with Mango & Tomato

Quick-cook couscous all dressed up for summer, quick to toss together and studded with bites of fresh mango and perfectly ripe summer tomatoes. Vegan and beautiful on a platter.

~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~

Do Certain Recipes Send You Straight to the Kitchen?

Do certain recipe words stop you like roadblocks?

My work-block words are so many, they need categories! World cuisines such as Moroccan and Greek, anything Finnish or Swedish or Nordic. And Canadian, of course, Canadian!

Hints at origin ("traditional" or "authentic") and seasonality ( “summer” and “winter”). Savory.

And then there’s an endless list of favorite ingredients. Blueberries, buttermilk, sour cherries, almost anything with lemon. Beets, of course! Mangos are high on the list too. These days I buy more mangoes in a month than I once did in an entire decade. Most go into smoothies and a summer version of my daily Quick 'n' Easy Raw Salad.

What's NOT On My List? Couscous!

I do love saying the word out loud, though, doesn’t it just make us laugh? You should hear the three-year old twins learn the word, peering into the bowl to see what I’m making. "Koos-koos, koos-koos!" they practice, and I laugh again. Besides, time-wise, couscous deserves serious attention since it cooks way faster than traditional pasta or rice.

Every so often, a word in a recipe stops me in my tracks, willing me to move straight to the kitchen. “Mango Couscous” did that to me last summer. It makes up in minutes and is a great backdrop to grilled chicken or Fast Roast Chicken, I think it would be gobbled up in a potluck too!

What "Recipe Words" Stop YOU In Your Tracks?

Which recipe words send YOU straight to the kitchen? I've shared mine, won't you share yours, too? I'd love to hear what compels you to the kitchen!

---

SUMMER COUSCOUS with MANGO & TOMATO

Gluten-Free when made with GF Couscous. Low Carb. Low Calorie. Weight Watchers Friendly. Vegan.

Hands-on time: 20 minutes
Time to table: 20 minutes
Makes 5 cups

COUSCOUS
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1 cup whole-wheat couscous

MANGO & TOMATO
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 jalapeño chile, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 mango, peeled and cubed
• 1/4 cup dried currants
• 1 ripe tomato, chopped
• Juice of a lime, about 1 tablespoon

• Small tomatoes, halved, optional
• 1 lime, cut in wedges, optional

COUSCOUS In a saucepan, bring the water, butter and salt to a boil. Stir in the couscous, remove the saucepan from the heat and let it all rest for 10 minutes, fluffing occasionally. Yes, couscous "cooks" and puffs up in no more than very hot water!

MANGO & TOMATO In a skillet, heat the olive oil until shimmery. Stir in the jalapeño and garlic, let gently sauté for a minute or two. Stir in the mango and currants, let cook just until the mango is beginning to soften.

Stir the cooked mango mixture into the couscous. Gently stir in the tomato and sprinkle with lime juice.

TO SERVE Serve warm or at room temperature with lime wedges on the side for an extra douse.

ALANNA’s TIPS If there's a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's nearby, look there for whole-wheat couscous. I find it quite perishable, so use a box within a couple of months.

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Half Cup: 66 Calories; 3g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 119mg Sodium; 11g Carb; 2g Fiber; 7g Sugar; 1g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS Old Points 1 & PointsPlus 2 & SmartPoints 3 & Freestyle 2 CALORIE COUNTERS 100-calorie serving, 3/4 cup; 50-calorie serving, 1/3 cup. This recipe has been 'Alanna-sized' with reductions in fat and calorie-dense dried fruit and increases in crunch and nutrition from extra vegetables.

MAKE IT WEIGHT WATCHERS FRIENDLY Summer Couscous is an easy recipe to make extra-friendly for Weight Watchers followers who rely on the "free" Freestyle ingredients. It takes just two quick changes.

• First, substitute quinoa for couscous. The two ingredients have similar textures but quinoa is a "whole food" where couscous is a processed pasta. You will have to cook the quinoa in a more usual way, I recommend this favorite method, How to Cook Quinoa for Meal Prep.
• Second, skip the currants which are dried fruit and thus don't qualify for "free" under Freestyle.

Adapted from The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa by Marcus Samuelsson, Ethiopian by birth, adopted by a family from Sweden, now a chef in New York. DISCLOSURE My Disclosure Promise

---

Seasonal Cooking: This Same Week, Across the Years

Light Tomato Basil Quiche Basil-Cream Cheese Dip Cottage Cheese Pancakes (<< protein-packed!) BLT Pasta Salad (<< this week's favorite savory recipe) Easy Fruit Sorbet Grilled Steak with Summer Tomato Salad Tomatoes & Fresh Mozzarella for a Crowd Cold & Creamy Cantaloupe Soup Summer Couscous with Mango & Tomato Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Tacos (<< too hot to cook?) Salmon with Pesto Zucchini Noodles & Warm Tomatoes Cornmeal Muffins with Peaches Greek Chicken Dagwood Sandwiches

This Week, Elsewhere

~ Baba Ganoush ~
from YaYa's Eurocafe
~ more St. Louis Restaurant Recipes ~
My Weekly Column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

~ Skillet Stewed Tomatoes & Okra ~
~ more Recent Recipes ~
A Veggie Venture

---

More Recipes for Summer Salads

(hover with a mouse for a description; otherwise click a photo to view the recipe)

~ Favorite Summer Salad Recipes ~
from Kitchen Parade

~ Seasonal Soup & Salad Recipes Especially for JULY ~
from A Veggie Venture, my food blog about vegetables

---

Shop Your Pantry First

(helping home cooks save money on groceries)

~ couscous recipes ~
~ mango recipes ~
~ currant recipes ~
~ tomato recipes ~
~ lime recipes ~

~ All Recipes, By Ingredient ~
~ How to Save Money on Groceries ~

---

Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

---

© Copyright Kitchen Parade 2013, 2014 & 2019