I have been on somewhat of a Couscous kick lately.

The whole reason for the couscous thing is because I had some at my parents house a couple months ago and I’d forgotten how good it was. So the other day I just happened to be at the local Ralph’s and decided to pick some up on impulse.

I usually go to Albertsons where I’m pretty familiar with generic store and off brands and about how much cheaper they are than normal. But at Ralph’s I usually don’t have a clue. Especially the Ralph’s that is closest to me. I actually don’t shop there because the selection, variety and quality of the produce is spotty.

So when I had that hankering for couscous, I could only find one brand (Riceselect?) of plain old couscous and it was a big ass jar of it. I know they have those all-in-one-box ones but I wanted to see how the plain one was. I was pretty determined to buy couscous that day.

So determined that I ended up buying the 32 ounce tub of it and it cost me godamn $6!

Later, I found out that while that’s not super cheap, it’s not THAT bad. It comes out to around 20 cents an ounce. Since a normal serving is about 1/4 cup, you get about 20 servings in this tub. Checking online, I deduced it goes for anywhere from 10 to 40 cents an ounce… with the ready-mix ones with flavor at the top end of the range.

So what the hell is couscous? For the longest time, I thought it was an actual grain… and in fact surfing around Wikipedia showed that it IS considered a grain in countries outside the U.S. Which explains my confusion because the tub reads “Quality Durum Wheat Moroccan Style PASTA”. I believe it is made from semolina which is another name for this ground up durum wheat. Also it is called “Maftoul” in some of the other countries where it is pretty popular.

Whatever it is, it’s delicious and my absolute favorite thing about it is the fast cooking time. You just boil up water, add salt and flavorings, then add the couscous (about 1 cup for 1 cup of water). Stir few times, turn off the heat and cover for 5 minutes. Then fluff it up with a fork. Done! Much faster than making white rice.

You can also toss in various veggies as well: in the picture above I used leftover red bell pepper and some garlic. I’ve also tried celery, carrots, onions with ok results. Sometimes, I use chicken stock instead of water as well. A little olive oil r butter also helps liven it up.

I could be wrong, but I think couscous is actually similar to one of the ingredients in some bird foods? It may take awhile to dig it if you’re used to eating normal rice.

Also, I am pretty sure that this couscous that you buy in American markets is “pre-cooked” stuff which is the reason it cooks so quick. I think originally you’d have to keep boiling the stuff or cook it a couple times since it’s so hard.

I don’t think the price beats plain old rice, but it’s a nice change from eating rice. And god knows I eat a lot of white rice…

Price: $6 for 32 ounces (19 cents/ounce)
Bought at: Ralph’s
Cheap Eats Score: 6/10