During zucchini season, we love finding new ways to prepare this plentiful summer squash. In this dish, we soften zucchini in tangy tomato sauce and serve it over a bed of warm, nutty couscous. This simple and flexible stovetop recipe for couscous with zucchini and tomato sauce is a snap to make at home.
How To Make This Recipe
Fresh zucchini serve as the base of this dish, so we’re careful to select firm squash with glossy, unblemished skin. We choose small or medium zucchini for this dish because younger zucchini bring more flavor to the party.
After washing our squash, we trim and slice them into thick rounds.
We also love experimenting with this flexible dish by bringing in different vegetables, herbs and spices. Mushrooms, vidalia onions, bell peppers, and okra all make for lovely additions. If you don’t have thyme on hand, you can always swap this herb with basil, oregano, or tarragon.
Prepare Tomato Sauce
While we opt to use canned plum tomatoes for simplicity, fresh tomatoes will also work. For uniform results, you’ll want to remove the skins from those fresh tomatoes before starting. Using a blender or food processor, we spin those juicy tomatoes until smooth.
Prepare a smooth, tangy tomato sauce
Next, we bring our saucepan to medium-high heat. Once hot, we sauté our chopped garlic in olive oil. After a minute or so, we stir in our our thyme sprigs.
Sauté garlic and thyme in olive oil.
Then, we pour our tomato sauce into the pan over our garlic and thyme. We season this sauce to taste with sea salt and fresh-cracked black pepper.
Soften Zucchini
Once our sauce starts to boil, we reduce our heat to low. At this point, we add our zucchini rounds. As we place our squash, we take care to ensure each of those rounds makes contact with our sauce.
We continue to cook our zucchini in tomato sauce for 25 minutes or so, partially covered, until the rounds are tender and sauce has thickened. Meanwhile, we prepare our couscous.
Simmer zucchini in tomato sauce.
Make Couscous
To prepare our couscous, we start by bringing water to boil. Sometimes we do this on a stovetop. Other times, we just keep things easy and use our pyrex measuring cup and a microwave.
Meanwhile, we grab a big bowl. To our bowl, we add couscous, a tablespoon of olive oil, and just a pinch of salt.
Once our water boils, we pour it over the couscous. We then give it a quick stir and cover it with a plate or a lid. We allow our couscous to rest for 5 minutes or so. Once the water is absorbed, we fluff the couscous with a fork and season to taste.
Prepare the couscous.
Ready To Serve
Once the zucchini is tender, we’re ready to plate our final dish. We split our couscous between bowls. Finally, we top our couscous with a scoop of zucchini in tomato sauce.
Divide couscous between bowls.
Let’s dig in! If you have any leftovers, simply cover and store them in the refrigerator. For a little leftover magic, consider dicing any remaining zucchini and use them as a pasta sauce.
Let’s dig in.
More zucchini recipes:
Recipe Card for Couscous With Zucchini & Tomato Sauce
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Couscous With Zucchini & Tomato Sauce
Equipment
- Blender, handheld mixer, or potato masher
- Medium saucepan
- Small saucepan
- Medium bowl
Ingredients
For zucchini with tomato sauce
- 2 medium zucchini washed and cut into 4 thick rounds each
- 14.5 ounces plum tomatoes or one can
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 2 tablespoons olive oil extra virgin
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- black pepper to taste
For couscous
- 1 cup couscous
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil extra virgin
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
Make zucchini with tomato sauce
- Wash zucchini, cut off the tips, and slice into 4 equal thick rounds. Set aside.
- Add plum tomatoes with liquids to a food processor or blender. Process until smooth. If you don't have a food processor or blender, you can also add them directly to a medium saucepan and smash with a potato masher or use an immersion blender.
- Bring the saucepan to medium-high heat. When hot, add the olive oil and add the garlic and cook for 1 minute before adding the thyme sprigs. Stir.
- Next, add the tomato sauce and season with 1/2 tsp of salt and black pepper to taste.
- Once the sauce starts boiling, reduce to low heat. Add zucchini rounds. Be sure that all of the rounds have contact with the sauce. Continue to cook over low heat for 25 minutes, partially covered, until zucchini rounds are tender and sauce has thickened. While this cooks, prepare the couscous.
Make couscous
- Bring water to boil.
- To a medium bowl, add couscous, 1 tbsp olive oil, and a pinch of salt. Pour 1 cup of boiling water over the couscous and stir. Cover the bowl with a plate or a lid and let rest for 5 minutes. Once the water is absorbed, fluff the couscous with a fork.
- To serve, add the couscous to individual bowls and top with a scoop of zucchini with tomato sauce.
