This creamy roasted red pepper & chickpea pearl couscous is the perfect easy and delicious recipe! The creamy sauce is made of roasted peppers, chickpeas, cashews, nutritional yeast and lemon juice – extra creamy without any dairy. In with the chickpeas, you sautรฉ onions and mushrooms (or any other veggies you have laying around you want to throw in!) and serve with fresh herbs like parsley or basil. **note: in the picture featured, I used orzo instead of pearl couscous, which is also an option for this recipe!
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20-25 minutes
Servings: 2
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 4-5 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Handful of mushrooms
- 1 tbsp Italian spice blend
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes (+ more to serve)
- 1 can of chickpeas (540mL, 19 fl oz)
- 130g dried pearl couscous
- Pinch of salt
- Handful of chopped spinach or kale
- Small bunch of fresh parsley or basil
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
- 3 jarred roasted red peppers
- 1/3 cup chickpeas (from the can listed above)
- 1/3 cup roasted unsalted cashews
- 2-3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 lemon (about 2-3 tbsp lemon juice)
- Pinch of salt
- 2/3 cup water
Equipment
- Large frying pan or pot
- Small pot
- Blender
Instructions
- Dice or slice an onion, peel and mince garlic cloves, and chop mushrooms (and any other veggies if adding those).
- To a frying pan on medium heat with 1 tbsp of olive oil, add the onions and stir every couple minutes. Then, add mushrooms, minced garlic, and a pinch of salt and continue stirring frequently.
- Boil water for the pearl couscous and cook according to package directions.
- Drain and rinse the can of chickpeas. Add dried herbs and red pepper flakes to the pan with the onions and mushrooms, then the chickpeas (set aside 1/3 cup for the blended red pepper sauce in step 5), and continue stirring.
- Blend together the roasted red pepper sauce with a few jarred roasted red peppers, 1/3 cup chickpeas, cashews, nutritional yeast, a pinch of salt, lemon juice and water. Blend until smooth and creamy (adding more water if needed, but shouldn’t be too runny).
- Pour the sauce into the pan with the veggies and add chopped spinach/kale. Drain the pearl couscous and add it in as well, mixing everything together well. After a couple minutes, remove from heat.
- Serve with the fresh parsley or basil and enjoy!
Notes
*Other beans, such as cannellini or butter beans, would be good in this recipe!
*Pearl couscous could also be replaced with orzo (I would use about 1/2-2/3 cup dried for 2 people) – this is what’s pictured in the recipe photo at the top!
