Couscous with Grilled Summer Vegetables and Loads of Herbs

Ingredients

• 9 ounces couscous
• 1/2 pint cold water
• 3 red peppers
• 1 handful asparagus, trimmed and peeled if necessary
• 2 or 3 small firm patty pan squash
• 1 small bunch spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
• 2 to 4 fresh red chilies, seeded and finely sliced
• 3 good handfuls mixed fresh herbs (best are coriander, mint, flat leaf parsley)
• 1 recipe olive oil and lemon juice dressing, recipe follows
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Red wine vinegar

Directions

Place the couscous in a bowl with the cold water. This will start to soften the couscous and you will see the water disappear as its soaks in. While the couscous is softening, we need to blacken the peppers. I do this by placing the peppers directly on the naked flame of my gas burner. If you don't have gas, then blacken under the grill. Both ways you need to blacken the peppers on all sides, so turn when need be. When fully blackened, place in a sandwich bag, wrap in plastic wrap or cover in a bowl for 5 minutes until cool. This will steam the skins and make peeling and deseeding easier. Remove the skins and seeds and roughly chop.

On a very hot ridged grill pan, lightly char the asparagus and patty pans on both sides then toss them into the bowl of couscous with the peppers, spring onions, chilies and torn or chopped herbs. Mix well. Add the olive oil and lemon juice dressing and toss well. Finally, taste and season with salt and pepper and a couple of dribbles of red wine vinegar for a slight twang. It's a beautiful thing.

OLIVE OIL AND LEMON JUICE DRESSING:

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 5 tablespoons best quality olive oil
• 1 level teaspoon salt
• 1 level teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Mix together all the ingredients