This Instant Pot Giant Cous Cous with Seafood is so good! So good that, in fact, you should all try it!
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📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Giant Cous Cous with Seafood
Equipment
- 1 Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or oil of your choice
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 small carrot finely chopped or grated
- ¼ orange pepper or your favourite colour pepper
- ½ red chilli deseeded (if you don't like spicy food, don't add it, this recipe is very versatile)
- 1 small chunk of spicy chorizo it doesn't have to be spicy chorizo, in fact it doesn't have to be chorizo at all, you could always use a teaspoon of paprika, although I'd probably use a teaspoon of sweet and a teaspoon of smoked paprika
- 1 lemon zested and juiced
- 550 ml stock I used homemade chicken stock, you could also use water and a couple of heaped tablespoons of my vegetable stock paste. This particular stock had then been used to make my Chicken, Leek and Carrot Soup with Chorizo so it already had extra lovely flavour
- 145 g giant cous cous (also called pearl cous cous or Israeli cous cous) this was one and a quarter cups using the measuring cup that comes with your Instant Pot. Most supermarkets in the UK seem to sell their own brands of this type of cous cous. It also works with wholewheat giant cous cous. Here in England it's easy to find in Sainsbury's
- 2 spring onions trimmed and sliced
- 175 g frozen Mixed Seafood I used a pack from Tesco called Seafood Selection, "a cooked selection of mussels, kings prawns and squid rings, no need to defrost
To serve
- Lemon wedges 1 or 2 per person
- 1 handful Fresh coriander chopped (don't like coriander? Use parsley or skip entirely)
Instructions
Note for Thermomix users: make your life easier by chopping the onion, garlic cloves, carrot and chilli for 5 seconds on speed 5 then add the pepper and do 2 more seconds, speed 5 then decant everything into the Instant Pot's inner pot to Sauté.
- Set to a low Sauté. Add the oil and sauté all the vegetables for a good 5 minutes. Add the chorizo and keep sauteing, letting it release its lovely juices, keep stirring to coat the vegetables.1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or oil of your choice, 1 onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 small carrot, ¼ orange pepper, ½ red chilli, 1 small chunk of spicy chorizo
- Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and the stock. Stir in the cous cous, the spring onions and the frozen seafood.1 lemon, 550 ml stock, 145 g giant cous cous (also called pearl cous cous or Israeli cous cous), 2 spring onions, 175 g frozen Mixed Seafood
- Check the sealing ring is properly in place. Lock the lid in. Steam Release set to Sealing.
- Pressure cook on high for 1 minute. Do a 6 minute quick pressure release at the end. This means that, when it finishes cooking, you wait 6 minutes and then do a QPR (Quick Pressure Release) to let the rest of the steam trapped inside out. I set the timer on my phone to 6 minutes when I hear the Instant Pot beep to say it's finished cooking.
- Serve with the freshly chopped coriander and the lemon wedges. Enjoy!1 handful Fresh coriander, Lemon wedges
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Video recipe
The recipe in the video below doesn't exactly show you the ingredients below but the method is the same and, in fact, it serves the purpose of showing you just how versatile this recipe is.
Can I double this recipe?
You can scale this recipe up or down. Always remembering the rule about filling your Instant Pot up to half way when pressure cooking ingredients that expand or foam up. Make sure you read all about the filling rules of pressure cooking.
My tip: if you double the recipe, double all the ingredients except the carrot (it can make it quite sweet) and use the same timings.
How to pressure cook Giant Cous Cous
The most useful thing I can tell you when cooking Giant Cous Cous is the ratio and the cooking times and then you can play to your heart's content so:
Ratio is 1:2.5. That's one cup of Giant Cous Cous to two and a half cups of liquid (homemade stock in this case).
Cooking time is one minute high pressure with a 6 minute QPR. This also works with wholewheat Giant Cous Cous.
This means that six minutes after it finishes cooking you let out the rest of the steam trapped inside by performing a Quick Pressure Release.
Is Giant Cous Cous the same as normal Cous Cous?
In short, no. Please note that this recipe is for Giant Cous Cous, not normal cous cous which cooks in no time with hot water. You may see Giant Cous Cous also with the name of Pearl Cous Cous.
How do I set my Instant Pot to Sauté Less?
The Sauté button of the Instant Pot Duo generally has 3 settings: Less, Normal and More (i.e. low, normal and high).
If your Instant Pot has an Adjust button (older Instant Pots): Press the Sauté button followed by the Adjust button until under Less lights up.
If your Instant Pot doesn't have a Sauté button: press the button repeatedly.
In the Duo Evo Plus you have 6 Sauté settings (yes, I know, awesome, right?) and you use the dial.
In the video below in fact you can see how I set it to Less in the Duo Plus.
In a Ninja you also have several heat levels when browning.
Have you joined my Pressure Cooking Facebook group?
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