Happy New Year and New Decade! 2010 was a good year and I am looking forward to an even better 2011. We had a nice long break. It wasn’t exactly quiet but it was great to spend time with the family and catch up with friends. Of course the food was wonderful and I think I gained several pounds in just a few days. 🙁 Now it is time to get back in shape so that I can wear those skinny pants again.
Talking about wonderful food, my dear friend Ann whom I had the privilege to meet during my vacation to Singapore last summer, made a fantastic Checkerboard Chocolate Cake for the New Year. If you have not visited Anncoo Journal, you are missing out. Ann is a talented baker and her baking creations make me drool. Do check out her blog. She has a wealth of recipes there.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Elisabeth of Food and Thrift Finds for passing this award to me sometime back. Elisabeth grew up in a family of European chefs, learning from the best of best. She shares a ton of delectable recipes and her life on the beach in Florida with us on her blog. Thank you Elisabeth for your friendship and this award.
Now, let’s start cooking! I want to start the New Year with a lean but tasty dish. I was delighted to find this gluten-free brown rice couscous at my local health food store. Couscous is delicious but most are made of semolina and wheat flour and is not suitable for those on a gluten-free diet. With this brown rice couscous, I can now cook it as often as I like, knowing that every member of the family can enjoy it. Rice couscous takes a longer time to cook but the the texture is very similar to that of the regular couscous with a slightly nutty flavor. It paired really well with this tangy tomato base sauce. Please use regular semolina couscous if you prefer but do cook the couscous per the packaging instructions.
Shrimp and Chickpeas Brown Rice Couscous
Ingredients
- 1 package (10 oz/280g) roasted brown rice couscous
- 3 cups (720ml) water
- ½ tsp salt
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion , chopped
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- ¼ tsp ground turmeric
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp paprika
- 2 cups (240g) cauliflower florets
- 1 can (16 oz/450g) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 1 can (14.5oz/410g) stewed tomatoes
- ¼ cup (60ml) water
- Salt to taste
- 8 oz (225g) shrimp, peeled and deveined
- ½ cup flat leaf parsley , chopped
- Lime wedges (optional)
Instructions
- In a medium sized pot, bring 3 cups (720ml) of water to boil. Stir in salt and couscous. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for 13 to 15 minutes without lifting the lid. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with fork.
- While couscous is cooking, heat olive oil in another pan. Sauté onion and garlic for 1 minute. Stir in spices. Add cauliflower, chickpeas, stewed tomatoes, and water. Bring to a boil and season with salt. Cook for 3 minutes.
- Add shrimp and cook for another 2 minutes or until shrimps curl and turn pink.
- Turn off heat. Stir in chopped parsley.
- Serve immediately with roasted brown rice couscous and lime wedges.
This delicious Shrimp and Chickpeas Brown Rice Couscous is a complete one dish meal. Do give it a try.
I am excited to show you the other cool Christmas gift I received from Ro-Ri San. This Wusthof Classic 7-inch Santoku knife was autographed, numbered, and signed by Harald Wusthof, seventh-generation owner of the Wusthof Trident Company of Solingen, Germany. There are only 75 of these Wusthof’s bestselling knives, autographed exclusively for Eversharp located here in Minneapolis.
Be sure to check out my 1st Blog Anniversary post for a chance to win an autographed copy of a cookbook I’ve chosen as a giveaway. The giveaway is open till 9:00pm Central time, Wednesday, January 12, 2011.
Enjoy…..and have a wonderful day! 😎
sarah says
Happy New Year!!!!…
yummy platter….
Jean says
It’s simple to make but delicious and flavorful. Great combo! 🙂
Anncoo says
WOW Biren, I am about to switch off my computer, then I saw your new post. Thanks a lot for the mention. My family and friends gave a “Big WOW!” after I cut the cake. I must give the credit to you because you gave me the cake pans,that makes the cake turned out so beautifully.
I’ve never tried brown rice couscous before. Must get one or more and start to cook more healthy rice and dishes after the festive season…oh..after CNY.
Biren says
You are most welcomed, Ann, and the credit goes to you. I could never make a beautiful cake like that even if I had the pans. You are truly gifted. Your frosting/icing skills are perfect! I hope you get much use out of those pans. 🙂
Julie M. says
Biren, this sounds delicious. Both Alex and Andrew adore chickpeas and Nick is a shrimp fan, so I think this would probably appeal to my entire family.
lequan says
Biren, what a great way to start off 2011 with this wonderful, healthy, and delicious looking dish. I have tried couscous before, but have never tried making it myself. What a perfect combination of ingredients. I love everything about this dish – great recipe!
Oh you are a lucky lucky girl! Such a thoughtful gift to receive, Biren! It’s a bit funny how us foodies get super excited over knives, but I know this is no ordinary knife. I’m just saying, if we weren’t foodies, it’d be a little scary to see someone get so excited over a knife though…teehee. Way to start off 2011, my friend!
Biren says
I know what you mean about the knives, kitchen gadgets, and appliances. I have always love such gifts but these days I am super excited as I get to “talk” about it. 🙂 I am in the process of changing out my knives and this is a real special one. It’s a really handsome and well balanced knife but I am not using it as much as I would like to because I do not want the signature to wear off. It is supposed to stay but then over time, it will fade. Even the fired on markings do.
Monet says
Hi Biren! What a wonderful dish to start the new year with. It looks so flavorful and healthy. I love couscous, and Ryan and I both adore shrimp. We are going to be making this in the near future. Your camel is so precious, by the way! Thank you for sharing with me. I hope you are having a lovely start to the first week of 2011!
Roxan says
Ooo, brown rice couscous, I haven’t seen that before and will have to look out for it. It looks awesome!
Biren, I thought about you all weekend. I think you saw my pictures on facebook but it snowed the WHOLE time while I was in mammoth. The whole way back, too until we were less than an hour outside of LA. It must be so hard to live in weather like that! Do you have to shovel your driveway every day, and also your roof?
Biren says
Aww…thanks Roxan for thinking of me! You are so sweet! Yes, it can be hard to live with extreme cold and tons of snow especially towards February and March. It gets “old” by then. It’s exciting when the first snow falls and it is nice to have a white Christmas and to go skating.
The shovelling and roof raking is the not-so-fun part of winter but we have to do it pretty much every time there is fresh snow. It helps to have a snow thrower here in Minnesota as we do get a lot of snow. Fortunately, my boys are now grown enough to help and the snow on the driveway gets cleared pretty fast.
Sharon Moh says
The shrimp looks amazing! I’ve never had brown couscous before so this is rather intriguing. That knife is such a lovely gift! I bet it’s great to use. On my internships before, I had to survive on knives provided by the hospital accomodation and it was literally a nightmare trying to cut anything with them. A wonderful recipe to kick start the New Year!
Biren says
Thanks Sharon for the compliments! Dull knives are a pain and they can actually be quite dangerous as we try to use more force than needed to cut something. I like my knives to be sharp and ready to go. 🙂
Belinda @zomppa says
My kinda dish. Love it!! Been doing a lot with quinoa instead of rice now, so this, this I’m going to do!
Lyndsey says
I’ll have to check for that brown rice couscous, it sounds great. I love the combination of flavors and the cauliflower is a nice touch! Congrats on your award and how nice you got to meet up with Ann! I would love to be able to try one of her cakes!
Stella says
Biren! Biren! I made fresh shrimp the night before last and guess what side I used? That box of organic brown rice couscous. I guess great minds think alike (smile)! Your shrimps look wonderful by the way. I love that you put cauliflower in there…that looks good…
Biren says
That brown rice couscous is really good. I am going to buy a few more packs to keep in the pantry. We love it! I can think of a many dishes that will go well with it. Nice alternative to regular rice. 🙂
torviewtoronto says
delicious and healthy happy new year Biren
Martha (MM) says
Wow! You managed to put tons of my favorite things all into one dish – LOVE IT! Thanks so much for linking it up to Tailgating Time this week 🙂
Faith says
This looks like the perfect dish to start the new year, Biren! So flavorful and delicious, yet light and healthy. That brown rice couscous sounds wonderful, I’d love to find that!
5 Star Foodie says
A delicious and healthy dish! I would love to try the brown rice couscous, I know my daughter would really like that!
sweetlife says
a perfect way to begin the new year! A flavorful dish, we love couscous and I purchased beautiful shrimp today..a lovely gift, hopw exciting!!
sweetlife
Angie's Recipes says
A nutritious and delicious recipe. Love every single ingredients in the dish…thanks for sharing it.
penny aka jeroxie says
A lovely healthy alternative 🙂 And well done on the award. Well deserved.
Blackswan says
What a flavourful meal u’ve got here, Biren! I love prawns & this looks like a well-balanced meal 🙂 Congrats on the award & Happy Anniversary!
Joanne says
I am trying to get back to healthy eating this year and this sounds like the perfect meal! Thanks so much for sharing it!
Namitha says
Such a perfect n healthy meal…loved the prwans in it..Happy New year ,Biren!!
Juliana says
Biren, what a great dish…healthy and so pretty, love the idea of brown rice couscous, chickpeas and shrimp, all place together in a nice dish 🙂 Happy New Year!
Reeni says
There’s something about a one dish meal like this that is so comforting. This is packed with some of my very favorite things and looks very hearty and delicious! Your new knife is a beauty!
Magic of Spice says
Biren, this looks fantastic…love your spice choices and I am sure it tastes as delicious as it looks 🙂
Chris says
wow … looks delicious
denise @ quickies on the dinner table says
Congrats on your lovely award – must be an honor to receive it from someone with such an impressive kitchen pedigree!
I have never heard of brown rice cous cous – I must keep a lookout for it as I have decided to eat healthier and try to lose some blogweight 😉
This sounds wonderful and looks so tasty! Love the combination of shrimps with chickpeas and those lovely spices! Lucky girl to get such a gift!!
DongXing says
My kids love this dish although we often cook it using the regular couscous and without the shrimps. This is for me an undoubtedly superfast one-pot hot meal that I can make at short notice anytime, ie, when I’d forgotten to take something out of the freezer to defrost in the morning! I add frozen peas and sweetcorn as well to get the younger boy to eat his 5-a-day.
DongXing says
Oops, I want to say how much I like your new Santoku knife. Any tips on how to sharpen these knives? I am not very good at sharpening and my beloved Santoku does need a bit of help as I feel it is more dangerous to use a blunt knife than a sharp one.
Biren says
You should hone your knife before using it each time to keep the edge straight. I use a honing steel or one of those little gadgets that you run your knife through. Eventually they will need to be sharpen professionally unless you know how to use a sharpening stone. I prefer to have my good knives professionally sharpened.
Mary says
Congratulations on your well-deserved award, Biren. This dish is a perfect example of why it was awarded to you. This sounds delicious. Have a great day. Blessings…Mary
Heather says
That looks soooo yummy.
Norah says
Wow…looks so good!