Curried Couscous without the Curry

By Janice~

I was at the grocery store last night to get fennel, but alas, our Wal-Mart supercenter in Tyler does not have fennel (I had suspected that) so I moved on to my next recipe idea—the beets with orange vinaigrette—but we don’t have beets here either. So next was the curried couscous. I bought everything that I don’t normally have at home, or know I am out of—I thought.

Tonight when I started the couscous, after I had gone too far to turn back, I realized I did not have any curry powder. When did I run out of it?? I used to have some. Maybe my pantry moths got it last summer, and it got thrown out. So then I looked for the turmeric—and it appears it had the same fate as the curry. I had a dilemma—can you make curried couscous without the curry? I looked for anything that might be similar in my spice cabinet, but came up with nothing, so decided I must change directions with the seasoning. After looking over my options, I choose a Mural of Flavor from Penzey’s Spice. It smelled good—so it became the substitute for the curry. I also substituted dried cherries for the currents, just because I had them. I cut the recipe in half as there were just two of us. We had very generous servings. And the result of all this substituting…? We loved it! Even my sometimes over opinionated husband loved and it—even said so twice!

So I will make this one again. I think that you could use any spice you want and it would be good. The most interesting ingredient was the yogurt—it just blended in completely. I do think I will cut back a tablespoon on the “good” olive oil next time. It was not too oily at all, but I have a feeling it would be just as good with a bit less. Sometime in the future I will try this again with the curry powder. Oh, I also liked that it is served at room temperature. I made it first and just left it on the counter, then made the rest of our dinner. It was nice to have one dish completely done before I started the rest.