Couscous

Listen, couscous is not a grain, don't let the little pellets fool you. It is wheat flour, moistened and rolled until it forms tiny grains, then steamed and dried. That is why it cooks in minutes — it was already half-cooked for you, long before it reached your fridge.menu shelf.

Choose it by look and smell: the grains should be even, pale, dry, flowing like sand through your fingers, with no musty smell. If they stick together in little clumps, be wary — that is a sign moisture has already found its way in.

Some people say couscous is a cousin of rice, a grain you boil like any other. No! Wheat flour, remember. Pour boiling water or broth over it, cover, let it sit, then fluff with a fork.

The mistake that comes from forgetting this: people boil couscous in a pot like rice, stirring, drowning it. What should come out light and separate, with every grain on its own, turns into a wet, sticky mass instead. Patience and a lid — that is the whole secret.

For a good salad base, 100 g dry couscous gives you 376 kcal, 12.76 g protein, 77.43 g carbs, 0.64 g fat — plenty of reason to pair it with vegetables, not drown it in oil.