Until 2012, I think it is safe to say that I had never had couscous, which is absurd. It’s now one of our pantry staples. While it might not be a whole grain, it is the perfect vehicle for lots of tasty dishes and a staple in a number of cultural cuisines.

The first time I had couscous was on an evening when the Kiwi had volunteered to cook. At the time I had an hour and a bit commute to and from work every day, so I never hesitated to take him up on that offer. The thing is though that whenever he volunteers to cook, he refuses to tell me what he is making. {I have come to realize that this is because he has no clue what he’s making until about 6pm, but that’s beside the point.} The point is, I had no clue what I was going to be walking into.

The first thing that hits me when I walked through the door was fish. Really, he hit me with a fish.

No, that didn’t happen. I’m just kidding. The whole house did smell like fish though, and I was a bit skeptical. I had no reason to be.

The Kiwi is a great cook, and that is because he follows directions well. He likes to have a recipe and generally sticks to the recipe pretty closely {as opposed to me who views recipes as mere suggestions}. Following a recipe from the free e-cookbook by Jules Clancy called Stone Soup: Minimalist Home Cooking, he had made a warm, garlicky tuna and cherry tomato salad over couscous {pg. 59}. It was outrageously delicious, and {bonus} the fish smell didn’t even linger.

Despite my best efforts, I’ve yet to come up with anything that improves this recipe. It is pretty perfect and so is the book. The whole book is full of simple recipes that use 5 ingredients {or less} that you probably already have in your panty. There are very few processed ingredients to be found in the book which is absolutely the type of recipes we like. Oh, and have I mentioned it’s free?

{Just as a disclaimer, we aren’t being paid to promote this. We are just fans, and we thought that you, our dear reader, would benefit from the knowledge that this wonderful, free product exists. Go, download it, and see if we’re not right.}