Vegan 'till 6: Savory Vegan Breakfast part 2

Here’s a really easy vegan dish that I often eat for breakfast. This is so simple that most people wouldn’t bother writing about it. But here it is: not sexy but delicious.

Spinach with couscous

I don’t have exact amounts here but I’ll give some guidelines.

Begin by making the couscous which you can do if you can boil water. Simply bring 2 cups of water to a boil and add 1 cup of couscous. Turn down the heat and cook, covered, for 1 minute. Turn off heat but leave pan undisturbed for at least 5 minutes. The resulting 2 cups of couscous will make 2 to 3 servings of the recipe below and will also keep well in the refrigerator. To reheat simply add a couple of tablespoons of cold water to the couscous to break up any lumps before adding to the pan.

Take one of those bags of pre-washed spinach and put it in your salad spinner and wash it again, trust me on this. Spin off almost all of the water but don’t let it get bone dry. Figure one bag per serving. This will seem like a lot of spinach until you’ve cooked this once.

Heat some olive oil in an 8” or 10” skillet whichever you have. How much oil? I usually count out 2 Mississippi’s while pouring from the bottle. Add a couple of cloves of garlic to the oil when it gets hot. You can either just lightly crush the garlic, let it flavor the oil and remove it when it gets golden or you can finely chop the garlic and eat it with the spinach. This is your preference. I like eating garlic in the morning but I can understand if you don’t. You can also add some crushed red pepper flakes with the garlic, or you can omit them. Again, this depends on whether you like a little spice in the morning.

Before the garlic burns add the spinach to the pan along with a generous pinch of kosher salt. Move the spinach around and watch as it shrinks away to a fraction of its original size. When it’s done shrinking and most of the liquid has cooked away add the couscous. Stir to combine and remove from heat. I like to add a splash of balsamic vinegar and a drizzle of good olive oil. Plate, eat and pat yourself on the back for starting the day off right.

Like the bulgur I wrote about earlier this will fill you up and keep you going till lunch. Always make sure to eat lunch or you’ll be ravenous at dinner and prone to making bad food choices.

Also like bulgur buy your couscous from the bulk bin in the store and not from the box. You will save significantly on the cost without sacrificing any quality.