Garden peas, snap peas, spring onions, and fava beans cooked with large couscous and topped with a spring onion-lemon relish and feta cheese in this easy spring vegetable couscous. Serve as a side dish, a light main course, or let it cool and serve it as a pasta salad.
Note: If you've never cooked fava beans before, see this step-by-step guide to shelling them.
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Ingredients:
- 4 spring onions, divided
- 2 lemons
- 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 lb. fava beans
- 1 lb. English peas
- 1/2 lb. snap peas
- 3 green garlics or garlic scapes, or 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 2 cups large or pearl couscous (a.k.a. Israeli couscous)
- 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
Preparation:
- Trim and finely chop the onions. Set aside 1/4 of the chopped onion. Put the remaining 3/4 onion in a small bowl.
- To make the spring onion relish: Use a fine-hole grater or microplane zester to zest 1 of the lemons, being careful to avoid the bitter white pith. Add the zest to the onion. Juice both lemons and add the juice to the onion-zest mixture. Stir in 1/4 cup of the olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set the relish aside.
- Shell, blanch, and re-shell the fava beans. Shell the English peas. Trim and string the snap peas and cut them into 1/2-inch pieces.
- In a medium pot, heat the remaining 1 Tbsp. olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the reserved onion and the green garlic. Cook, stirring, until the onion and garlic are soft, about 3 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Stir in the couscous. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thick but still soupy, about 5 minutes. Stir in the peas and snap peas. Continue cooking and stirring another 3 minutes. Add the fava beans. Cook until the couscous and the vegetables are tender, about 1 to 2 more minutes.
- Serve the couscous hot, warm, or at room temperature topped with the spring onion relish and feta cheese.
Makes 6 to 8 servings Spring Vegetable Couscous.
