A watercolour of pale couscous with bright orange mandarin segments and flaked almonds
Generated with OpenAI gpt-image-1
Adapted from North African sweet couscous

Mandarin and almond couscous

An established dish converted to shelf-stable ingredients. Every substitution is documented below.

How long it keeps

About 6 months, set by Olive oil.

Indicative, for planning a build before you buy. The answer for a pack you already own is the best before date printed on it, and that only holds if it has been stored as the label says.

Serves
3
Burners
1
Pans
1
Water
0.2 L
Active
8 min
Total
15 min

Ingredients

Sweet couscous is standard across North Africa and reads as odd only if you have met couscous solely as a savoury salad.

  1. Almonds toasted dry, two minutes, out.
  2. Couscous in a bowl with the cinnamon, sugar, salt and oil.
  3. Drain the mandarins, keeping the juice. Make the juice up to 180 ml with boiling water and pour it over. Cover, five minutes.
  4. Forked through, mandarin segments folded in, almonds over.

Using the tin juice as part of the liquid is the whole trick, it flavours every grain rather than sitting on top.

Serves 3 as a pudding, or alongside something salty like the chorizo and apricot stew.

What this was adapted from

North African sweet couscous: seffa, served as a pudding or a sweet side

  • fresh orange and orange-blossom water → tinned mandarin segments and their juice

    Orange-blossom water is the perfume of the original and has no substitute in a cupboard. Mandarins in juice give the fruit and the sweetness but none of the floral note, which makes this a plainer, fruitier dish.