Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Koken met Ro | Een herfstachtige pompoencouscous met vegan feta

Hello there! We're back!

We are going to cook with my good friend pumpkin.

We are going to make couscous with grilled pumpkin

and also feta cheese, spinach and lots of delicious herbs.

And it is vegan! So that's great.

For my ingredients, I have a pumpkin of course. The big star of this dish.

I have some spinach, couscous and herbs.

I have ras el hanout and also nutmeg.

Salt and pepper of course, and some fake saffron.

I believe that for a little bit of saffran you easily

pay six euro at the supermarket

but this also does the job.

You can get this at multiple international supermarkets.

I also have some vegan cheese, vegan feta cheese.

I haven't tasted this before, normally I use regular feta cheese.

But this time I thought: 'Lets just try it!'

And lastly, I also have an orange.

We will be using the peel

and also the juice, because it's a natural sweetener.

To start off with, we're going to cut the pumpkin in wedges.

You need a sharp knife of course.

Just cut it in half

which is of course easier said than done.

We're going to use the seeds in the dish.

We will bake them and glace them with the orange juice.

To scoop out the pumpkin, you can use a tablespoon.

Dig in!

Because we cut the pumpkin in half and scooped it out

the slicing is going to be much easier.

I'm cutting wedges of about one or one and a halve centimeter.

Cut it in wedges and preheat your oven to 200 degrees.

Now we're going to start cooking the pumpkin.

I'm spreading the pumpkin evenly on the baking tray.

Try to be creative with the space.

When you look at it, it's almost an abstract work of art.

I'm going to sprinkle some olive oil over the pumpkin.

Spread it out with your hands and cover everything.

If you have a brush, that would make this much easier.

When everything is covered, it's time for the herbs.

This part might be the most fun.

Because you get to just sprinkle it on top.

Some pepper over here and over there.

You get some pepper! And you get some pepper!

A little bit of salt, just toss it on there.

Next I have the ras el hanout

which is going to make this very mediterranean and Moroccan.

Then I have the nutmeg.

Not too much, but just enough for each slice.

And then the fake saffron.

I got it in these little bags, you just open them.

Look at this: a beautiful artificial colour

but it's very tasty.

And then we put this in the oven for 45 minutes...

See you later!

We're going to do everyone's favourite thing:

chopping onions.

Just like that!

Then garlic, we know how it works

We cut it into pieces.

What's very chill about this recipe,

is that you have to wait 45 minutes for that pumpkin.

Use that time to to get rid of the pulpiness on the seeds.

Use that time to reflect on life.

How do you think things are going?

How do you think the first few weeks are going?

And what would you do differently, if you aren't satisfied.

Then we'll rinse that pumpkin a little bit.

The onion and garlic should become a little glassy.

You can smell it too. We've talked about this a lot of times.

You add the spinach.

We really want to shrink the spinach.

Just stir this for a little bit.

Add a little bit of pepper to it.

I'm going to leave the salt out,

because I'm going to use the feta later.

And the feta is already a bit salty, so adding more salt...

...That's a bit of an overkill.

When your spinach has shrunk, we'll put it aside.

Now, we're going to focus on the pumpkin seeds.

Put a little bit of oil in the pan.

And then add the seeds.

You can already hear it sizzle a little bit.

The idea is that we let it burn a little bit.

so they'll release some flavours.

Then we'll put orange juice through it.

Just squeeze this nice and tight...

...and let the seeds cook in the juice for a while.

I add a little bit of salt and pepper to it.

For the couscous, just follow the recipe

that's on the back of the package.

I spread the spinach a little bit on the pumkin.

Try to spread the feta on top of as many pieces of pumpkin as possible.

Just make small pieces of feta.

Then we close it again for a while.

And then we wait about five minutes.

Just keep checking how your feta is melting and how your spinach looks.

Then it's time to make up a plate.

We start with a little bit couscous, like a bed.

Like that.

Then, of course, we have the star of the dish:

that beautiful pumpkin.

And to finish that, we have a little bit of the orange we cut up.

It's very nice, that sweetness in between.

Add some of those seeds to give a little bite to the soft textures

Bon appetit, enjoy and good luck in the kitchen!

See you next time!