Cold Mountain Couscous

I was recently leafing through my husband’s Backpacker magazine fondly remembering the days when we had time to spend an entire Saturday hiking our favorite White Mountain trails. Interrupting my daydream was a section called, On the Menu. Always on the look-out for new recipes, I scanned through the eclectic variety of meals one could make over a fire or 4” burner. I figure if backcountry hikers could make a delicious meal packed with enough energy to spend the day scaling mountains, I could easily make one of these recipes to boost up dinner or lunch. Below is one that sounds good to me. I think I’ll give it a try this weekend.

Cold Mountain Couscous


YOU NEED
16-ouch pouch (or can) of cooked chicken
½ cup instant couscous
2/3 cup water
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 small zucchini
1/2 red pepper (I added this ingredient!)
1 teaspoon fresh basil
¼ cup chopped pine nuts (optional)
¼ teaspoon salt (optional)

MAKE IT

1. Chop the zucchini and pepper.
2. Sauté the zucchini, pepper, chicken and pine nuts in a pan until veggies are softened and chicken is heated through. Set aside
3. Bring the water, salt and olive oil to a boil. Stir in couscous. Remove from heat.
4. Add chicken and vegetable mix. Stir. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes.
5. Stir in the chopped basil.

--Cooking Mom