Did you know you can use beautiful spring green leaves as wraps? The options for filings are endless, but this couscous one with olives, lemon, raisins, pine nuts and more is a favourite of mine. It’s based on a Riverford recipe I’ve been making for years.
These are so fresh, healthy and tasty.
You’ll need (serves 2 as a main):
120g couscous (dried weight)
8 whole spring green leaves
1 small/1/2 large courgette, grated
Small handful black olives, roughly chopped
Small handful raisins or sultanas
40g pine nuts, toasted for best flavour
Small handful parsley (or mint)
50g feta, cubed or crumbed
Zest of 1 lemon and juice of half
Add the couscous to a bowl and pour boiling water over it so it’s covered plus 1 cm extra.
Boil a full kettle. Cut the spring green leaves away from the core at their base. Slice away the tough inner core, making sure to leave a good 2-3 inches intact at the top of the leaves.
Place in a clean sink (plug in) and pour boiling water over them to blanch them. Drain and set aside.
To a large mixing bowl, add all the other ingredients to make the filling, along with 1-2 tbsp olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper.
I appreciate these wrapping instructions are a bit fiddly so you might want to watch my video….
When ready to wrap, take a leaf, lay it flat and take the base of one side and pull it across to close the gap in middle, overlapping by at least 1cm.
Spoon some of the filling into the middle then fold the bottom up to meet the middle, then fold each side in too, and finally roll from the bottom up to the top. Repeat with the others and dig in.
I didn’t have any leaves for wrapping so I just made a big bowl of the filling, it was delicious, thank you!