Another recipe from The QUICK Roasting Tin recipe book. Except – I opted to cook it an Instant Pot 😂

Lovely…

I think I choose to use the Instant Pot because the instructions for this suggested putting a foil cover over the baking tray before it went in the oven. For me, this was just like steaming the dish and I thought- well I can do that in my instant pot. So it would not be a roasted dish but the roasting aspect of this – was not something I was especially invested in today. I think I just wanted to experiment.

I found that this was so simple to make. I sautéed the onion in coconut oil. I gradually added the chopped chorizo and jar of artichokes. I then added a full bag of cous cous (300 grams). Then added 500ml of vegetable stock. I set the instant pot to a low pressure cook for 25 minutes. When finished I added the lemon juice and lemon zest, stirred in the chopped spinach and a tiny sprinkle of salt and pepper.

The cous cous stuck to the bottom of the Instant Pot container, I think because I didn’t turn off the pot at exactly 25 minutes (I went back to my desk and I was writing up some clinical notes). But it was well cooked. Next time I might just see if there is a difference in taste if I roast this.

The final product was nice – very tasty and made for a delicious light lunch. I noted that lemon very much adds an edge to the taste and I’m not sure I really appreciated the present of the artichoke. However I’m sure it’s something I’m going to make again/ just adapt with whatever ingredients I have in the house. I feel like I’m getting the hand of making basic giant cous cous dishes for quick and tasty working at home lunches . I’m enjoying the process and they are relatively easy dishes to assemble between meetings, admin tasks and clinic reports which I am most likely to be doing on the days when I am working from home.

I will share the original recipe for those who are interested in making it the way it was intended.

Ingredients

200g wholewheat giant cous cous

400ml vegetable stock

200g jarred artichokes, drained

1 red onion, roughly sliced

80 – 100g diced chorizo, finely chopped

1 lemon, zest and juice

Sea salt flakes

Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180oC fan/200oC/gas 6. Tip the cous cous, stock, jarred artichokes and onion into a roasting tin, and scatter over chopped chorizo. Cover tin tightly with foil, then transfer to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Once cooked, stir through the spinach and the lemon zest and juice. Taste and season with the sea salt and black pepper as needed.

Let everything cool down before dividing into lunchboxes. Refrigerate until needed.

Reference: The Quick Roasting Tin, Rukmini Iyer, page 88