Quick one-pan cous cous with sausage, pea tendrils and fresh tomato

I’m still giddy that farmer’s market season is back!  There’s a small one about 2 blocks from my office and I took a little sojourn over to the stalls, brimming with spring veggies and alive with people, to pick up a few things.

This is slight variation on a dish I made last week — my husband really liked it and even using frozen sausage (as I did today) I was ready to serve within 30 minutes!

Expectations:

While I was defrosting the sausage, I was able to speed through the chopping (just roughly chopped the pea tendrils, tomato, green garlic & cucumbers for the kids). As a reminder, any ’10 minute’ grain (i.e. quinoa) would work if you don’t have (or don’t like) Israeli-style (also called pearl) cous cos.   Pea tendrils have a short season, so they’re optional and you can easily replace

Time: If the sausage is not frozen, this is 20 minutes total time.

Serves: 4 to 5.  This feeds my family of 4 people, 2 adults and 2 kids 1 time, with a little extra for a single serving of leftovers.

Kid modifications:  If your kids are young, the flavors are mild and easy to serve the cous cous separated from the sausage and vegetables on the side.  If sausage is not to someone’s liking, it’s also easy to omit it when you serve.

Ingredients You’ll Need:

• 1 lb. of sausage (casings removed) — bought fennel riesling sausage from a local farm last week that was conveniently waiting for me in the freezer.
• 3 or 4 stalks of green garlic chopped into small rounds from the white part to the first 4 inches of the stalk (if you can’t find this springy farm stand fave, substitute with 2 cloves of garlic or the white parts of 3 scallions – chopped).
• 2 cups of water seasoned with about 1/2 to 1 tsp. of kosher salt
• 1 cup of dried Israeli-style or pearl cous cous (or Harvest Blend, I buy this at Trader Joes – it’s a lovely blend of pearl cous cous with a little red quinoa, split peas and orzo thrown in).
• Optional:  1 or 2 large sprigs of pea tendrils and leaves, chopped roughly into one inch pieces.  Can substitute with 1/3 cup of frozen peas or 1/3 cup of sugar snap peas, tough stem ends removed.
• 1 large tomato – cut into cubes or bite sized pieces.

The tomato, baby cucumbers, pea tendrils and green garlic are all from a visit to the farmer’s market near my office!

Steps to Put This On Your Table:

1. Using a wide high sided pan or shallow stock pot, sauté sausage (medium high) and sauté about 7 minutes until browned on all sides. Remove from pan and put aside in a bowl.

I sautéed the sausage first this time around, and put it aside to full cook through at the end.

2. Lower heat to medium and saute green garlic (or garlic or scallions) for 3 or 4 minutes.  The pan should have enough oil from the sausage, if not add 2 teaspoons of olive oil.

3. Add water and salt, increase heat to high to bring to boil.

4. Add cous to boiling water, cover pan, lower heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes.  Then add the sausage back to the pan and pea tendrils and cook for another 5 minutes.  If substituting peas for the pea tendrils, add them in the last 2 minutes.

It takes just moments after sautéing the green garlic to bing the water and salt to a boil. This style of cous cous (Israeli or Pearl) cooks within 10 minutes.

5.  Remove from the heat.  Top the servings with fresh tomato (for the tomato eaters).

Ready to serve and enjoy!

As always, what my kids’ plates look like. Same dinner for everyone, just serving everything separate for each child. With frozen (yes, they like eating them frozen) peas on the side.

What do you think? If you give it a try or have questions, please let me know in the comments.

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