Quick & Easy Orange Couscous

We all like to go to pasta or rice as a side to most of our main meals but you really couldn’t find anything easier than couscous in particular a flavoured one like orange couscous.

Instant couscous, which is what’s readily available at the supermarket has already been prepared, that is pre-steamed and dried semolina but it is quite a lengthly process if done by hand. Couscous is commonly used in North African cuisine like in regions of Morocco and some parts of the Middle East. It is also very similar to ‘grits’ in the USA. It can be used in both savoury and sweet dishes and perfect in a salad.

It’s so easy to prepare. Just add 1 cup of couscous to a dish, heat the kettle and make up to 1 cup of liquid and pour over the couscous. Cover and let sit for about 5 minutes. I had 1 orange in the fridge so squeezed the juice into a jug and made up the rest of the liquid to 1 cup with just hot water. Once the couscous has absorbed all the liquid, fluff with a fork and add a slurp of olive oil or a knob of butter. Use as you would pasta or rice but it goes particularly well with Moroccan dishes like a tagine, stew or slow cooked dish.

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Quick & Easy Orange Couscous

A delicious side to all types of dishes instead of pasta or rice. Particular nice with Moroccan or other North African cuisine dishes.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Servings 6

Author Anne

Ingredients

• 1 cup instant couscous
• 1 cup liquid including any juices and flavours
• 1 tbs olive oil or 1 tbs butter

Instructions

1. Put couscous in a bowl.
2. Add 1 cup of hot water including any flavouring like citrus juices, herbs or spices.
3. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
4. Fluff with a fork then add a tablespoon of olive oil or butter and stir through.
5. Serve as required.

Dark Chocolate & Orange Muffins

Speaking of oranges, you may have remembered I posted a recipe for Glazed Orange Cookies just the other day? Well I still had zested orange peel left and I like to make a batch of muffins each week for the children’s school lunch boxes. I thought I’d add a few (quite a few) large chunks of dark chocolate and these Dark Chocolate & Orange Muffins were thrown in the oven while it was on baking the cookies.

The zest from the Navel orange is so intense and such a lovely colour. They’re probably my favourite orange to eat and bake with.

I used my Basic Muffin recipe which is such a great, versatile recipe. You can add anything to it and the muffins always turn out nice. Just remember not to overwork it otherwise the muffins could turn out a little tough. (Oh, and don’t worry about ever using chocolate chips. You need to taste the chocolate so I just cut up chunks from a block of chocolate. So much nicer.)

Another winner with the kids. As soon as these were cool, I threw them into a bag and into the freezer and take one out for each day. They defrost by the time the children are ready to eat them at school and are as fresh as the day you baked them.

What’s your favourite muffin flavour combination?

Dark Chocolate & Orange Muffins

• 2 cups Self Raising flour
• 2 tbs orange zest
• 1/2 to 1 cup dark chocolate, chopped roughly
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup oil (I used Canola)
• 1 egg, beaten

1. Mix flour, dark chocolate and sugar.
2. Mix together milk, orange juice, orange zest, oil and beaten egg.
3. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add wet ingredients.
4. Mix lightly and pour into cupcake papers and bake in a 180 deg C oven for 15 minutes. 
5. Makes a dozen large sized muffins, 18 cupcake sized muffins or 24 mini muffins.

Glazed Orange Cookies

There’s nothing the like smell of orange when it’s used in baking. That’s one of the great things about using seasonal fruit and vegetables. It’s winter here at the moment so the oranges are absolutely beautiful. I often have the spare one leftover from the children’s school lunches and I love nothing more than to use it in baking. I usually opt for some kind of cake recipe like my Easy Orange Cake which is so easy to whip up but today I opted for cookies. I was inspired by the Glazed Lemon Cookie recipe by Two Peas and Their Pod. It’s absolutely dead simple and so gorgeous.

Start off with zesting all that beautiful rind off the orange. That’s what gives it that deep, beautiful orange flavour.

Mix the dry ingredients together.

Then mix the combined wet ingredients. I always use the ‘melt and mix’ method when baking just about anything. I’ve not had any failures to date. No need to use an appliance to cream the butter and sugar.

I use my small ice cream scoop to form uniform sized balls and then press down gently to form a flat cookie.

Bake until golden brown. The house will be filled with a lovely, warm orange smell which is perfect for a cool winter’s afternoon.

You can see all those lovely flecks of orange zest through the cookie.

After the cookies have cooled, mix together 1 cup of icing sugar and 2 tablespoons of the juice from the orange to form a glaze.

Spoon the glaze over the cookies and allow to set (if you can wait that long). As much as I love to get my kids involved in baking, which they love to do most times, there was a fight over who was going to juice the orange using my vintage glass juicer. There’s something about the old fashioned way of doing things. Getting hands on and doing it the simple way is often the best. It worked back then and it still works today.

The glaze has set and the cookies are ready to be enjoyed. The recipe I used called for lemon but these would be good with any citrus like lime, mandarin, grapefruit, tangello or even cumquat, if you could manage zesting the small fruit. I’m happy to give any of them a try. This is a really good recipe and one that I’ll use again.

Glazed Orange Cookies

(from Two Peas and Their Pod “Glazed Lemon Cookies“)

• 2 1/4 cups plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbs orange zest
• 250gm butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 4-5 tsp orange juice

1. Preheat oven to 170 deg C.
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
3. Combine melted butter, orange zest, beaten egg and vanilla extra.
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix to a firm dough.
5. Form small balls of dough and flatten with fingers on the baking try.
6. Bake until golden brown or approximately 15 minutes.
7. For the glaze, stir orange juice into icing sugar and pour spoonfuls onto cooled cookies.

Orange, Spinach & Almond Salad

 

You’d think at this time of the year I’d be mad for wanting a salad. (I’m mad at any time of the year!) But I love fresh vegetables, winter is the perfect time for citrus in Australia and who doesn’t usually have nuts in the pantry to whip up this quick Orange, Spinach & Almond Salad.

What constitutes a salad anyway? Wikipedia says “a salad is a dish consisting of small pieces of food, which may be mixed with a sauce or salad dressing”. So whether that’s hot, cold, winter or summer, serving up an accompaniment to any meal that contains fresh vegetables, a zingy dressing and something with a bit of crunch sounds good to me.

The Navel oranges are just gorgeous at the moment, full of juice and a lovely deep orange colour, perfect for boosting the immune system when we’re all a little

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prone to catching whatever virus is doing the rounds in winter.

This salad literally took me all of 5 minutes to throw together. I served it alongside some grilled chicken breasts and it was just perfect. You could use any green. Think blanched broccoli, lettuce of any kind, beans, peas, kale etc. Citrus could be mandarin, lemon, grapefruit, blood orange and the nuts are whatever you have in the pantry, like walnuts, macadamia, peanuts, hazelnuts. Summer or winter, get your extra serve of vegies in this simple 3 ingredient salad.

Orange, Spinach & Almond Salad

• Baby spinach (or any other green vegetable)
• Orange segments (or any other citrus fruit)
• Almonds, toasted (or any other nuts)

 

Dressing:

• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp honey

 

1. Arrange spinach, orange and almonds on a platter.
2. Combine dressing ingredients in a jar and shake until well combined.
3. Pour over salad.

 

 

Flourless Orange & Almond Cookies

We were going to my not into cooking or baking sister’s place a couple of weekends ago and as always, she tries to get me to bake when I’m there. She must’ve got a lot of packets of ground almonds (almond flour) on special and seeing she has gone gluten free, I was up for the challenge to bake something suitable. I’m also trying to go gluten free when I can and I must admit I don’t feel anywhere near as bloated when I finish eating as I would when I ate foods that contain gluten.

These cookies were so easy and even more easy than a conventional cookie mix and oh so delicious. I guess they weren’t as crispy or crunchy but had a bit of firmness. The hint of orange was a perfect match with the ground almonds. My sister now bakes a batch of these every week and she’s made them with an almond pressed in the centre, some with choc chips and some with dried fruit. A really easy alternative to the standard cookie if you’re trying to cut back on gluten or flour products. (PS I hand wrote the recipe from something I googled on the internet and I can’t for the life of me remember the web site so if its your recipe, thank you very much and full credit goes to you.)

Flourless Orange & Almond Cookies

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 egg
• 1 tbs coconut oil
• 1/2 cup sugar (or Stevia)
• 1/4 tsp almond extract (or just vanilla extract)
• grated zest from 1 orange

1. Combine all ingredients until well mixed.
2. Place spoonfuls of mixture onto a lined baking tray (or roll into balls and press with a fork).
3. Bake in a 170 deg C oven until golden.
4. Allow to cool.
5. (I doubled the mixture which made about 24 cookies.)

Date, orange & walnut muffins

There’s something about the oranges in winter. Its nature’s way I guess of providing an extra boost of Vitamin C to ward off those winter colds and flus and to boost our immune systems. The Navel oranges are just gorgeous at the moment and add such a wonderful flavour to baked goods. I just adore the taste of orange in the batter (I may or may not be guilty of licking the bowl on my own) and the smell that permeates from the oven while its baking. I made an easy Orange Cake a couples week before and needed some muffins for the kids, so while the oven was on, I created this flavour combination. (Not suitable for the kids for school because of the nuts but my son ate them at home with me).

This recipe is my basic muffin recipe with a few additions. That’s what I love about a basic recipe. You can add anything you like to it depending on what you’ve got. Keep those basic ingredients in the pantry at all times and use what you have, for example, a handful of sultanas, chocolate chips, grated or chopped apple and cinnamon, raspberries and white chocolate, apricot and coconut. The combinations are endless for muffins. Check out your local muffin store for flavour combinations and re-create them at home.

Date, Orange & Walnut Muffins

• 2 cups Self Raising flour
• grated rind of 1 orange
• 1/2 cup finely chopped dates
• 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup oil (I used Canola)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg

1. Add all ingredients, mix lightly and pour into cupcake papers and bake in a 180 deg C oven for 15 minutes. 
2. Makes a dozen large sized muffins, 18 cupcake sized muffins or 24 mini muffins.

Easy Orange Cake

It was my sister’s birthday just recently and it has become a bit of a tradition for me to take over a cake so my children can blow out the candles. Its all about them! But my sister doesn’t mind. She gets a homemade cake and who needs an excuse for cake, right?

I had so much on this particular week so I went straight for my good old favourite the No Fuss Fudge Cake and I had a stack of oranges in the fridge. Who doesn’t love an orange cake? There’s just something about the taste and smell of the orange in the batter as well as the smell that wafts through the house while it’s baking. It was a lovely dense, fudgey cake. I made it in two separate round pans and filled with a simple orange icing and finished with a sprinkling of icing sugar.

A few of my sister’s neighbours and friends popped in and we devoured it. A lovely quick and easy cake to use up those oranges.

Easy Orange Cake

• 1 and half cups plain flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup orange juice
• grated rind from 1 orange
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 6 tablespoons oil (I use canola)
• 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
• half teaspoon salt
• quantity of buttercream flavoured with orange juice and orange rind

1. Turn oven to 180 C (375 F). 
2. Grease two x 20cm round cake tins well. 
3. Dust inside the tin with a little flour. Tap out excess. 
4. Put the flour, orange rind, sugar and orange juice in a bowl. 
5. Add  vinegar, oil, baking soda and salt. 
6. Mix with beaters until smooth. (Mixture is runny.) 
7. Pour into the tins. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. 
8. Cool for 10 minutes then take out of tin.
9. Join two cakes with orange flavoured butter cream. 
10. Sprinkle with icing sugar to serve.

Orange Yoghurt Spice Cakes

I had oranges and plain Greek yoghurt that needed using up and I always make this Orange Yoghurt Cake but do you think I could find the recipe. I couldn’t even find it online. I was going to have a guess at it but didn’t want to waste ingredients in case it was a flop. Instead, I relied upon my old favourite, the No Fuss Fudge Cake and just tweaked that. I’ve also been loving Chai tea since my weekend meditation retreat towards the end of last year and really felt like adding some spices to complement a mug of Chai tea.

I was lucky enough to receive a variety of teas from Nature’s Cuppa and they make a Chai blend in a tea bag. It was gorgeous, with just the right blend of peppery warmth and spicy flavours. Its my regular treat just before bedtime.

Nature’s Cuppa also have a great range including all of your regular blends like Ceylon, Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Green, herbal teas and even a coffee.  Their tea is certified Fairtrade®. Fairtrade® means better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fairer terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing http://bellalunawitches.com/event/5349 world. The Fairtrade® label is your independent guarantee that this product meets international Fairtrade® standards.

My son loved this mini loaf in his lunch box. It was nice just with a light sprinkling of icing sugar and didn’t need any frosting. Adding yoghurt to a cake makes a lovely dense mixture without being too heavy. I think this would work well with lemon too.

Orange Yoghurt Spice Cakes

• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup Greek yoghurt
• 1.1/2 cups self raising flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves (optional)
• 6 tbs oil (I used Canola)
• 1 tbs vinegar
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• icing sugar to dust

1. Preheat oven to 170 deg C. Oil cake pan. (Cake can be made into cupcakes, mini loaves, a loaf pan or round pan.)
2. Mix all ingredients together and mix well.
3. Bake for approx 20 mins or until golden brown.
4. Allow to cool slightly in pan before turning.
5. Once cool, dust with icing sugar to serve.

Disclaimer:  This is not a sponsored post. This product was provided for editorial consideration. I was sent some Nature’s Cuppa tea and coffee to try and all opinions and photos are my own. 

No Bake Orange Slice

I’m guest blogging over at my friend Megan’s blog, “Declutter Daily” today. While she’s sunning herself somewhere along the east coast of the US, I’m freezing my butt off here in Australia. Thanks Megan for the opportunity to be a guest blogger.

I blogged about decluttering the contents of your fridge and pantry and shared a recipe for “No Bake Orange Slice” so go and check it out. Here’s the recipe anyway.

No Bake Orange Slice
80g (3 oz) butter
1 small can sweetened condensed milk
250g old biscuits (if not enough, add crushed Weet Bix or Rice Krispies)
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 tablespoon (20ml) fresh orange juice
grated rind of 1 orange
white chocolate, melted to drizzle on top (or make an orange frosting to top with additional coconut)

1. Place butter and condensed milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.
2. Remove from heat when butter has melted and mixture is smooth. y
3. Finely crush biscuits using a food processor or put into a plastic bag and beat with a rolling pin.
4. Stir crushed biscuits and coconut together in a large bowl until well combined. 
5. Stir orange juice and rind into condensed milk mixture.
6. Add to biscuit crumb mix and stir until well combined.
7. Press mixture into a prepared slice pan (approx 16x26cm or 6″x10″).
8. Drizzle with melted white chocolate or spread orange frosting over slice and sprinkle with extra coconut.
9. Refrigerate slice until cold and firm then remove from the pan and cut into pieces.
10. Store slice in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer.

Jaffa Cupcakes

I’d bought 3kg of small Navel oranges a couple weeks back and thought I would have gone through them quicker than I had so they needed using up. I just made my old favourte “No Fuss Fudge Cake” recipe with chocolate orange flavours.  I was going to do choc orange icing but used up the last of my cocoa in the cake so thought it was a bit of fun to top with Darrell Lea “Choc Orange Balls” (similar to “Jaffas” but bigger).

Jaffa Cupcakes

1 and half cups plain flour

3 tablespoons cocoa

1 cup freshly

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squeezed orange juice

grated rind of 1 orange

1 tsp vanilla

1 tablespoon white vinegar

6 tablespoons oil (I use canola)

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

half teaspoon salt

Icing:
1.5 cups icing sugar
1 tbs butter melted in 2 tbs orange juice

1. Turn oven to 180 C. 
2. Put the flour, sugar, cocoa and orange juicein a bowl.
3. Add vanilla, orange rind, vinegar, oil, baking soda and salt.
4. Mix with beaters until smooth. (Mixture is runny.)
5. Pour into the cupcake papers.
6. Bake 20 mins approx.
7. Cool for 10 minutes then take out of tin.
8. Ice with your favourite icing.