Recipe: Moroccan style garden vegetable couscous

I am not just greedy in terms of growing or shopping, I also love food. And hate waste. At the same time I try to stop my greed from expanding my waistline so tend to cook healthily avoiding cream, butter, salt and too much sugar but have been known to indulge occasionlly and have a weakness for cheese.

This is a simple weekday recipe that you can adapt to whatever you have to hand at home but it's perfect to use up a glut of courgettes and tomatoes. It would serve 4 or else you can portion it up for a healthy packed lunch - it's good hot or cold.

3-4 courgettes - sliced on the diagonal
1 butternut squash - chopped into chunks
1 can chopped tomatoes
1-2 tbsp tomato concentrate
1 onion roughly chopped or sliced
Garlic powder and mustard to taste
Scatter in some herbs - I used ras el hanout (a Morroccan spice blend)
80g plain couscous
1 drained can of chick peas

Put the lot into a slow cooker and cook on low for 4-5 hours until it's all soft.  Blend half of it into a chunky soup texture and mix in a large bowl with the couscous. Cover until the couscous has fluffed up (should be fine in 15 mins max). Roughly chop the remaining vegetables, drain the chick peas and mix in with the couscous. Healthy, speedy and ideal for summer.

PS This is a very versatile dish and you can leave out the couscous and serve the vegetables as a side dish (seen this refered to as a tumbet) or whizz it up in a blender as a thick soup or pasta sauce (thicken it first).