Sausage & Halloumi Couscous with Fresh Rocket Pesto

I nearly didn't cook tonight. After a long day at work I was tempted to not bother, but as much as I thought I wasn't in the mood to hit the kitchen with gusto... once I had got there, as always, I felt inspired. My lovely range cooker just literally calls out to me..

So, I have pork sausages, I have some rocket and I have halloumi cheese. This is where my head went. These sorts of dishes with fresh pesto and the like sound a bit too much work. But if you happen to own a hand blender, it takes less that 3 minutes to make. I loved it!

Ingredients:

6 (400g) thick pork sausages
250g halloumi cheese, cubed

Cube the halloumi and fry in a little oil until golden. Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm. Gently push the centre of each sausage until you can twist the middle (making half size sausages). Pop in the oven at 180 C for about 35 minutes until browned and cooked through.

Pesto:

55g fresh rocket
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp. pine nuts
4 tbsp. olive oil
salt & pepper

Put the first three ingredients into a hand blender and blitz. Add the seasoning and olive oil and blitz again to make a pesto. Put into a bowl in the fridge until ready to serve.

Couscous:

1 cup  (150g) couscous
1 vegetable stock cube
1 1/2 cups (365ml) boiling water
1 small courgette, finely diced
1/4 red pepper, finely diced

Put the couscous and crumbled stock cube into a boil and pour over 1 1/2 cups (365ml) boiling water. Cover with cling film to steam for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the vegetables.

To serve:

Stir 20g fresh rocket into the couscous and put in the centre of the plate. Add some sausages, halloumi, pesto and a little plain low fat yoghurt. Scatter over some pine nuts and serve.