Once I accepted that I was never going to justify housing a giant couscoussière in my tiny Montana kitchen and using its vastness, sized for the average Moroccan family, to feed my household of two, instant couscous became a staple grain not just at home but for lakeside picnics and onboard dinners. We recently wrapped up a two-week sailing adventure aboard The Blue Mule in the San Juan and Gulf Islands, and the couscous recipes I’ve been sharing in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon were part of our cruising menu.

The little grains cook so well in just-boiled water that I keep a collapsible silicone container with a tightly sealing lid in my galley box. I pour the couscous into it, add a pat of butter and sprinkling of cinnamon and salt, and then pour JetBoil-heated water on top and seal the container. For dinner before an evening sail on Flathead Lake, I use the same technique but boil the water on my kitchen stove and take it to the lake in a thermos.

Learn more about making and using couscous and get the complete recipes for Pour-Over Cinnamon Couscous and Chickpea and Vegetable Couscous Salad.

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Twice as Tasty

Pour-over couscous uses less fuel and needs less tending than rice, so I use it as the side for all sorts of grilled meals and the base for packable one-dish salads and veggie bowls. A scoop alongside grilled kebabs or portobello mushrooms and salad greens fills out a meal, or it can be mixed with any fresh vegetables and fruit into a standalone salad tossed with homemade dressing.

I first started making the chickpea salad I share in my most recent Flathead Beacon column because for two people, I could split a can of chickpeas between a hot couscous dish for dinner and a cold couscous salad for the next day’s lunch. This one prep, two meals concept works beautifully when we’re cruising, because we’re ideally eating lunch on the fly while tending full sails. Yet it also makes so much sense for land-based meals that I’ve applied the technique to fish, risotto, and more.

Learn more about paired meal prep in this blog post. I turn my camera from food to wildlife on our sailing adventures, and you’re welcome to check out my latest critter shots on our sailing blog.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.