The inspiration recipe for this dish had a cooking time of 40 minutes which was reminiscent of the way my great aunt used to cook vegetables - until they were brown and she was sure that they were dead. I cooked my veggies for 10 minutes, with a 10 minute cooling down period (still covered in the pot), and I thought the dish was delicious and the vegetables done to perfection. Do what is right for you, including using whatever summer vegetables you feel like using in the base dish. I used canned tomatoes rather than fresh for the sauce because I wanted the juice that comes with the canned version and felt curiously guilty.
I made a vat of this since I had loads of vegetables and froze most of the remainder in pint sized jars to use over the winter, when I will want to be reminded of summer flavors. I left a portion in the fridge for lunch this week - I can't help but think that this will make a delicious sauce and plan on puréeing some and either topping pasta with it and with grated Parmesan, or slathering a garlic rubbed sourdough toast with ricotta and topping it with the puréed stew.
Last but not least, if you are a meat lover, you could add a pound of ground pork to this dish (brown it at the same step where you soften the onions) and this would be delicious.
1/2 lb Romano beans or other summer beans
2 large zucchini, or yellow squash or a mix of both
1 bunch of kale
1 or 2 large hot peppers
1 white onion
1/2 cup chopped garlic scapes or 3 cloves minced garlic
1/3 cup chopped coriander or basil
1 can whole tomatoes
1/2 cup whole wheat couscous
2 tsps olive oil
Salt
Prep all your vegetables - clean the beans, dice the zucchini and onions, slice the hot peppers, finely chop the kale, etc.
Heat the oil in a large pot and add the garlic, hot pepper, onion and salt. Cook, stirring often, for a few minutes until the onion starts to soften.
Add the tomatoes and the juice in the can, use a potato masher or large spoon to break the whole tomatoes into uneven pieces. Add half a cup of water. Taste and add salt if needed. Stir in the chopped coriander (or basil) and cook for a couple of minutes so that the flavors marry.
Lower the heat, add the beans and zucchini. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Stir well and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
Turn off the heat. Add the chopped kale and stir in well. Push aside the vegetables and add the couscous directly into the liquid at the bottom of the pot. Cover up with the vegetables that you set aside. Let the dish sit for 10 minutes so that the kale can wilt and cook and so that nearly all of the liquid left in the pan gets absorbed by the couscous. After 10 minutes, stir everything together and serve in large bowls, making sure that each serving gets a bit of couscous and each of the vegetables.
Excellent room temperature or hot. Probably excellent with thick slices of buttered crusty bread but -tiny sigh- not for me these days.
Inspiration recipe, here.
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