Winter Beetroot Pearl Couscous Salad

Pearl couscous is also known as Jumbo couscous, Israeli couscous; and Jerusalem couscous.  It should not be confused with the traditional semolina couscous.  Pearl couscous as the name suggests are round beads or tiny balls.  Unlike traditional couscous, pearl couscous is made from baked wheat rather than semolina.  It is very similar to pasta in that it holds it shape and texture. 

This Beetroot Salad certainly has the Wow factor, especially as the bleeding juices from the beetroot penetrated the pearl couscous .  In fact the longer its left the colour deepens, as well as the flavour. 

Beetroot Pearl Couscous Salad

Rainbow Chard Bundles

Its not easy to find rainbow chard or any other chard for that matter at large supermarkets, probably because it has a tendency to wilt not long after being picked.  No, the best place to find bunches of chard are at proper greengrocers and farmers markets where you can buy it direct from the grower, as I did about a month ago for my Ruby Red Chard Pasta Loaf.  

Chard is the one strikingly leafy stem that I am so looking forward to growing again, closely followed by the handsome curly kale.  There is so much diversity amongst the chard from bright lights chard, oriole chard, perpetual spinach, rainbow chard, rhubarb chard, silverline chard and the most well known of them all Swiss chard.  I loved how the colourful stems added a splash of colour to the garden the way flowers do.

So why am I talking about chard...

Brussels Sprouts Hash

I was never a fan of Brussels sprouts before I started this blog, in fact I positively detested them. Like as child ignoring them whenever they were served up on my plate.  But this changed, when I started growing my own vegetables.  I challenged myself to find ways of 'trying' to enjoy the vegetables that I grew as well as those that I purchased; and this meant cooking them creatively - not just out of the culinary box, but out of the traditional vegetable basket; and this trend has continued with other vegetables.  

Anyway, I've mentioned before that now my absolute favourite way of eating Brussels sprouts is oven roasted, so that those hard green baby cabbage balls transform into something soft, more delectable: charred golden, crisp here and there, but mostly caramelized.  However, in this particular recipe, the sprouts are cooked slowly oven the heat in a frying pan.  The sprouts still  get a similar treatment as you would from oven roasting.  If your still sceptic about sprouts, I woudl encourage you to try them this way, you may find yourself liking them, like I did.

Brussels Sprouts Hash