Textual Chef Textual Chef

Tunisian Couscous

Fluffy couscous topped with spiced chickpeas, lamb, and caramelized onions. A hearty one-pot meal that's aromatic, savory, and deeply satisfying.

50 minMediumServes 4480 cal/serving

TunisianDinnerStovetopStandard

Ingredients

  • 1 lb lamb shoulder, cubed
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 onion, sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp harissa paste
  • 1 can canned chickpeas, drained
  • 3 cups vegetable broth
  • 1.5 cups couscous
  • 1/4 tsp caraway seeds
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

  1. 1

    Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.

  2. 2

    Add 1 lb cubed lamb shoulder in batches and brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

  3. 3

    In the same pot, cook 1/2 sliced onion until softened and caramelized, about 8 minutes.

  4. 4

    Add 2 cloves minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds.

  5. 5

    Stir in 1 tbsp harissa paste and cook for 1 minute.

  6. 6

    Return lamb to the pot. Add 1 can drained canned chickpeas, 3 cups vegetable broth, 1/4 tsp caraway seeds, and 1/2 tsp salt.

  7. 7

    Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes until lamb is tender.

  8. 8

    Stir in 1.5 cups couscous, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 5 minutes.

  9. 9

    Fluff with a fork and serve.

Questions

Can I make Tunisian Couscous gluten-free?

Yes. The gluten in this entry is 1.5 cups couscous. Swap the pasta for a gluten-free one, cooked a minute short of its package time. Everything else proceeds as written.

How long does Tunisian Couscous keep?

Refrigerate leftovers within two hours and eat them within three days. Reheat gently on the stovetop.

Can I halve or double Tunisian Couscous?

Yes. As written it serves 4. Every ingredient in this entry carries precomputed half and double quantities, and the app's batch dial rewrites them inside each step. When doubling on the stovetop, use your widest pan or work in two batches so the food sears instead of steaming.

Serve it with

Cook this free in the app

Textual Chef is a plain-text cooking reference of 4,481 recipes, free to read and cook from, with no account and no paywall. In the app, this entry scales itself: half, standard, or double batch, every quantity recomputed inside the step that uses it. No ads, no life stories, no photos of somebody else's dinner.

The entries are curated and public-domain sourced, written to a fixed template and checked against it: tested quantities, one closed vocabulary of methods, and precomputed half and double batches on every line. Nothing here is a scraped blog post.

Cook this free in the appNo download needed. It opens in your browser, instantly. The kitchen tools (planner, shopping list, pantry, import) are $5.33 a month billed annually, and the first 30 days are free.