Baked feta, couscous make quick, delicious dinner any night
In The Dominion Post’s ongoing Wednesday feature, Quarantine Kitchen, we highlight dishes prepared by readers, staffers and chefs at our local restaurants, in an effort to keep us connected through food.
Today we bring you a taste of the Mediterranean (since, let’s face it, it could be a long time before any of us gets to travel again) with some baked feta with honey and a nice little couscous mix.
While this meal uses tomatoes, parsley, cherry peppers (peppadews are better, but a bit harder to find), dried fruit and garlic, you can really use any veggies you like, and fresh herbs of your choosing.
We soaked some dried figs in herbal mint tea to plump them and give a little extra flavor, but chopped dried apricots are also delicious in this dish. You can plump them by simmering in a little cider or balsamic vinegar, or just use them as-is. Golden raisins would also be great — or you can omit the dried fruit altogether. The sweetness does provide a good foil to the saltiness of the cheese and the tang and heat of the peppers, though.
You can also mix in pine nuts or chopped pistachios for some crunch, if you like. Again, it’s really more of a concept than a recipe.
Because, honestly, the beauty of couscous is that it cooks so quickly and makes a great bed for whatever you want to add to it.
Some toasted naan or pita works well as a feta receptacle, but you could serve it with crackers instead — or just put the feta over top of the couscous if, unlike us, you don’t try to load as many carbs into each meal as possible.
The feta is baked in the oven until just spring-y to the touch — you don’t want to melt it, just soften it and make this wonderful, warm treat. After about 8 minutes or so, take it out and spread some honey over the top — we used a honey infused with hazelnuts — and pop it under the broiler until it starts to brown. It will bubble a bit, too, as the honey caramelizes. (If your honey is too thick to spread, warm it in the microwave just a tad beforehand.)
When you take the cheese out, give it a good dose of freshly cracked black pepper and you’re ready to go.
BAKED FETA WITH VEGGIE-HERB COUSCOUS
-1 8-ounce block feta cheese
-10 ounces grape tomatoes, halved or quartered
-Bunch of fresh Italian (flat leaf) parsley, roughly chopped
-Minced garlic, about 1/2 teaspoon
-Handful dried figs (we soaked ours a bit in some steeped mint herbal tea for about an hour or two)
-Cherry peppers (peppadews are even better, but harder to find), chopped (pepperoncinis also work)
-10 or so kalamata olives, chopped
-Zest of one lemon
-Honey (we used one infused with hazelnuts)
-1 box couscous Far East couscous mix, whatever flavor you like
-Store-bought naan or pita, toasted
-Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
-Drizzle olive oil
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Make couscous according to package directions. You can certainly use a different type of couscous for this — we used this kind for ease and quick-cooking after a long day. Larger couscous, such as Israeli pearl, would be delightful here as well.
Mix your prepped add-ins together in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
Once the couscous is done, fluff it with a fork and add it to your veggies, herbs and other add-ins, mixing well.
Place the feta, whole, in an earthenware dish or small pan lined with foil and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in oven for about 8-10 minutes, until springy and soft but not melted.
Take cheese out of oven and spread liberally with honey. Place under broiler until bubbly and browned (keep and eye on it — this isn’t the time to walk away or get distracted).
Take from oven, serve alongside couscous and toasted naan, or put some directly on top of your couscous.
