chicken-cheese-couscous

Chicken & Cheese Couscous

Shared by Tom of Jamestown, NY

Near East brand flavored Couscous with added chicken, mushrooms and Baby Bell cheese.

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

½ package of Near East couscous
3-4 oz. dehydrated chicken
A few whole mushrooms, sliced (or use dried mushrooms)
One small, red wax wheel of Baby Bell cheese
Dried vegetables or cici beans, optional
Olive oil

At Home:

Open the Near East couscous and divide both the couscous and flavor pack in half. I like it with Near East Herbed Chicken flavor couscous. Put in ziplocks.

Put dehydrated chicken, veggies, and beans in separate container. I usually carry a bag of each to cover several meals.

On the Trail:

Start by soaking any dried food except the couscous in warm water.

Put olive oil in your pot and saute mushrooms. I usually use fresh and it is a great start to a meal.

Add soaking veggies/chicken, flavor pack, and ½-cup water.

Bring to a boil and add couscous. Stir and add water as necessary until it looks ready.

Put in a cozy for 5-10 minutes.

Peel and quarter the cheese. Add to the couscous and stir to melt. Enjoy.

Suggestions:

Don't add the cheese too early or the pot will be hard to clean. The cheese is usually good for a couple of days without refrigeration.

Couscous with TVP and Tomato

Shared by Calla's Dad of St. Paul, MN

Easy couscous recipe using textured vegetable protein instead of ground beef or turkey.

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

½ box couscous (slightly less than ½-cup)
1 Tbsp. Near East Seasoning Mix (half the pack)
¼ cup dehydrated tomatoes (sliced cherry or diced)
1¼ cups water + ½ cup water
½ cup Bob's Red Mill TVP (Texturized Vegetable Protein)

At Home:

Pack seasoning mix in a 2 x 3 plastic bag, mix tomatoes and couscous and enclose in a 4 x 6 plastic bag, separately bag up TVP.

On the Trail:

Place seasoning mix, couscous, tomatoes and 1¼ cups water in a pot with water and soak five minutes.

Couscous absorbs more water than other pastas. Be prepared to add a little extra water.

In a separate pot, mix TVP and ½-cup water.

Light stove, bring TVP and water to boil, and continue cooking for two minutes.

Remove from stove, and let TVP rehydrate for 8 minutes.

Put couscous pot on stove, bring to a boil, then place pot in insulating cozy for five minutes.

Finally, combine rehydrated TVP and couscous, and enjoy!

Chef Glenn's Comments:

As Calla's Dad mentions, couscous is a thirsty pasta. There is a chance that you could scorch the portion touching the bottom of the pot if all the water gets absorbed while the stove is on. You have to watch it carefully.

In Tom's recipe at the top, he soaks and brings all the dried ingredients to a boil first and then adds the couscous. This is the method I use now when cooking meals with couscous.