Couscous with Roasted Pumpkin
Six ingredients and twenty minutes of oven time. Frozen pumpkin and fresh mushrooms tossed in olive oil, spread on a roasting pan with red onion wedges, and roasted at 210°C until the edges caramelize.
Mix the roasted vegetables with fluffy couscous, squeeze lemon juice over everything, and eat it warm or straight from the fridge tomorrow. 459 kcal, 64g carbs, 15g protein, and 7g fiber.
Six ingredients and twenty minutes of oven time. Frozen pumpkin and fresh mushrooms tossed in olive oil, spread on a roasting pan with red onion wedges, and roasted at 210°C until the edges caramelize.
Mix the roasted vegetables with fluffy couscous, squeeze lemon juice over everything, and eat it warm or straight from the fridge tomorrow. 459 kcal, 64g carbs, 15g protein, and 7g fiber.
Ingredients
- pumpkin, frozen 5 ounces
- mushrooms 5 ounces
- red onion 0.5
- olive oil 1 tablespoon
- couscous 3 ounces
- lemon juice 1 squeeze
Method
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Preheat the oven to 400°F (210°C).
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Thaw the pumpkin pieces. Halve the mushrooms. Cut the onion into wedges.
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Toss the pumpkin pieces with the mushrooms, onion, oil, pepper and salt. Spread everything out in a single layer on a roasting pan. Roast the vegetables in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes until tender.
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Prepare the couscous according to the package instructions.
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In a bowl, mix the couscous with the roasted vegetables. Drizzle some lemon juice over it. Serve warm or cold.
Roasting the mushrooms at this temperature preserves ergothioneine, a heat-stable antioxidant found in mushrooms. The losses happen through water, not heat. Research found that boiling leaches most of it out, while dry-heat methods like roasting keep it locked inside the mushroom.
Why This Works
Behind this recipe
Does frozen pumpkin have the same nutrients as fresh?
Often more, actually. Fresh vegetables lose nutrients during transport and days on the refrigerator shelf. Freezing preserves carotenoids that would otherwise degrade during storage. The frozen pumpkin in this recipe likely arrived in your pan with more intact nutrients than a fresh one that sat in your fridge for a week.
Read the full evidence reviewWhy roast the vegetables instead of boiling them?
Flavor is the obvious reason. Roasting at 210°C caramelizes the pumpkin and mushrooms in ways boiling never could. But there is a less obvious one: mushrooms contain ergothioneine, a heat-stable antioxidant. Boiling leaches most of it into the water you drain away. Roasting is a dry-heat method, so the ergothioneine stays inside the mushroom.
Read the full evidence reviewCan I make this ahead and eat it cold?
Yes. The couscous absorbs the roasted vegetable juices as it sits, and the lemon juice keeps everything tasting fresh. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
