As a vegetarian for more than three decades, couscous has been on my radar for a very long time. At first, I struggled to get any sort of flavour into it, but as you travel and you learn, you certainly get better at it. Today I think I’ve perfected it completely!

For me the best thing about this is that it’s all done in one mixing bowl, ready in less than 10 minutes and is absolutely ideal meal prep for a week’s lunches, a picnic, or an evening barbecue where you don’t want to be stuck indoors making the accompaniments while your spouse is outside entertaining friends in the sunshine.

Literally everything in this recipe is out of my cupboard/freezer so even better.

Ingredients:

240g dried couscous

400ml boiling water (check the ratio of couscous to water on your own packet to ensure you get it right)

1tbsp honey

1tbsp tomato purée

1 vegetable stock cube

40g raisins

1/2tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1tsp cumin

1tsp coriander

1dsp fresh (or frozen) coriander

1dsp fresh (or frozen) parsley

Method:

Pour boiling water into a medium-sized mixing bowl, add the honey, stock cube, tomato purée and spices, mix well to dissolve.

Add raisins, fresh herbs and couscous and stir well, covering the bowl and leaving for 10 minutes.

Drain the tin of chickpeas and stir these into the couscous.

In the words of Gordon Ramsay, done!

If it’s going into a lunchbox for the week, it is just lovely as it is, but if I’m serving this as a meal, I will garnish with sliced toasted almonds and fresh pomegranate seeds.