The Ultimate Winter Couscous

from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty

• 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
• 2 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch chunks
• 8 shallots
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 star anise
• 3 bay leaves
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• salt
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground tumeric
• 1/4 tsp hot paprika
• 1/2 tsp chile flakes
• 2 1/2 cups cubed pumpkin or butternut squash (from a 10 oz squash)
• 1/2 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
• 1 cup chickpeas (canned or freshly cooked) [I went with canned]
• 1 1/2 cups chickpea cooking liquid and/or water
• 1 cup couscous
• large pinch saffron
• 1 cup boiling vegetable stock
• 3 tbsp butter, broken into pieces
• 2 tbsp harissa
• 1 oz preserved lemon, finely chopped
• 2 cups cilantro leaves

Bake carrots, parsnips, shallots, spices, 4 tablespoons oil and 3/4 teaspoon salt at 375 degrees F for15 minutes.

Add, in my case, butternut squash.  This along with the parsnips and the milk from the mac and cheese were all bought at the Boston Local Food Festival I went to with Ori a few weekends ago.

Bake for another 35 minutes.

Add apricots and chickpeas and bake until hot.

Mise en place up until right before the last photo.

Prepare couscous and melt a lot of butter in.

Put vegetable mixture over couscous and cover it with a veritable carpet of cilantro leaves.  Additionally, harissa and preserved lemon are mixed into the vegetables after they have left the oven.
I actually really liked this dish without wondering where the meat was.
Apparently some lady complained to UK paper the Guardian (where Ottolenghi has a vegetarian column although he isn't one) that the dish had too many ingredients.  I find that somewhat laughable.  If a cook is ambitious enough this dish shouldn't be that out of reach.