make | something sweet for dinner: fruity chicken cous cous

This is for one of those evenings when all you want is something sweet!  We love a bit of cous cous, and now that it's much easier to get so many different types, you can be a bit more inventive with it.  We've used wholewheat cous cous in this recipe, simply because it's a slower release carbohydrate, so should keep you going for longer.  It's still really cheap, with a packet in Waitrose costing only 99p.

This recipe does include pomegranate seeds (which are obviously not so cheap and cheerful!) but if you feel like a bit of an extravagance, do see if you can get some because they are so tasty and really beautiful!

This literally took us about 15 minutes to whip together, using up chicken we had in the fridge, so let this be the base for a meal out of whatever you've got hanging around leftover.  

Enjoy today!!
- rosinaviolets    x

Fruity Chicken Cous Cous 

Serves 4 

250g wholewheat cous cous

400ml hot chicken stock 

200g leftover chicken 

110g pomegranate seeds

400g can chickpeas

50g dried apricots, diced 

2 carrots, coarsley grated 

20g parsley roughly chopped, or 2 tablespoons dried parsley

4 dessert spoons mango dressing

• Put your cous cous in a heatproof bowl and pour over the hot stock.  Cover the bowl with cling film or foil and leave to stand for about five minutes, or until the cous cous has absorbed all the liquid.  

• Meanwhile, prep all your other veg.  Grate your carrots, dice the apricots, drain the chickpeas, de-seed the pomegranate and chop up the parsley.  Put it all into a big bowl with the leftover chicken and the dressing.  

• Tip: To de-seed a pomegranate, make sure you're wearing something you don't mind getting stained!  Pomegranate juice stains wooden chopping boards, so it's best to use a plastic one.  Chop the pomegranate into quarters, and then over a bowl, pick the seeds away from the membrane.  You can fill the bowl with water and rinse the seeds if you like. 

• Use a fork to fluff up the cous cous.  Stir it into the bowl of chicken, pomegranate, chickpeas, apricots, parsley and dressing.  

• You can then put it in the fridge to serve cold with a salad, or warm it up in the microwave to make a satisfying hot dinner.  Yum!