#NowCookIt with CO-OP – Roasted Vegetable Cous Cous

Did you know that in October of last year, CO-OP and SORTEDfood partnered up to help get young people cooking? Well they did and together they came up with Now Cook It and way to help young people learn to cook.

Now Cook It is a simple online cooking course to help people learn basic techniques at a time and pace thats suits them. The course is completely free to anyone who has access to a computer.

Back when I was 18 and first out on my own I had to teach myself to cook. At home my mum had done all the cooking so I lacked basic skills that I had to self teach. A course like Now Cook It would have been so beneficial to me. My sister has only just started to learn to cook for herself and she’s 26! As cookery is an elective subject in school these days (and some don’t offer it at all) a lot of young people do struggle with cooking for themselves once they’re out on their own and this is why they resort to take away and microwave meals. Personally I love to cook and it is something I am good at but it’s not the case for everyone. Cooking from scratch can be both healthier and cheaper if you have the skills set to do it!

CO-OP kindly sent me a box with everything I needed to make the Roased Veg Cous Cous in it. I love cous cous however roasting veg properly has never been something I’m good at, it’s always underdone or burnt to a crisp so I was determined to master this and make a deliciously healthy meal for my sister and mum.

As the recipe is readily available on the Now Cook It website with a great cook along video I won’t type it all out here for you. It’s so much simpler to make than I thought and as we were having it as an evening meal rather than a quick lunch which is what it’s filed under I added some chicken to it. Aside from the fresh vegetables everything else would be things I had in my cupboard such as oil, dry cous cous and seasoning. If you buy from stores like the CO-OP where you are able to pick up individual pieces of veg rather than a whole bag you don’t end up paying extra or wasting, which as a money savvy parent, is really important to me.

It took under half an hour to put it all together as it’s very much a dish you can easily throw together if you’re in a hurry for dinner, or make to keep in the fridge and have as lunch the next day. The time consuming bit is of course chopping the veg but it’s totally worth it.

When something is as colourful as this you know it’s going to be healthy;

It went down a treat and even though it serves two you can see that three people managed to get decent portions in our house. My sister even asked if there was more to have for her lunch at work the next day! It went down a treat.

I can’t believe how easy it was to put together, even with my concerns about roasting veg but there are additional pages linked to each recipe for any techniques you’re not sure about which is incredibly helpful for someone just learning to cook, it takes all the Google work out.

There are loads of other recipes to try that have really got me excited about cooking from scratch again (something I haven’t felt since my break up). I particularly want to give the Nutty Chicken Noodles & Cinnamon French Toast a go!

Ingredients were sent to me by CO-OP & SORTEDfood, all opinions are my own