Couscous and Salmon Recipe (Twenty Minutes, Serves Two)

This is the dinner I cook when salmon shows up discount at Lidl on a Wednesday morning. I take the 500gr packaging, which is around 10 eur, and when its dicsounted, it can be like 8. Take it home, pair it with sixty grams of couscous and one zucchini, and you have dinner for two in about twenty minutes. The whole plate comes in around 425 kcal with thirty grams of protein, which makes it both cheap and the kind of dinner that is borderline fancy.

Couscous and salmon is one of those combinations that works because all three components (couscous, salmon, a quick green) cook on completely separate equipment at the same time. Couscous in a pot off the heat. Zucchini in a pan. Salmon in the air fryer. No queue, no juggling, no waiting around.

Couscous is the fastest carb on any supermarket shelf. It isn't really cooked, it's hydrated. You boil water, throw the couscous in, lid on, walk away for fifteen minutes. There is no risk of mush, no risk of crunch, no draining, no rinsing. If you have ever stared at a pot of rice wondering if you should turn the heat down, couscous is the cure for that. Salmon, when it's on discount, is the best serious protein you can buy. Its delicious, refined, juicy and with the right fats. Zucchini is the cheat green. Slice it, hit it with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary and oregano, three minutes a side in a hot pan. It softens fast, browns nicely, and doesn't fight with the salmon for plate space.

The whole thing fits in a kitchenette. One small pot, one pan, an air fryer, no oven needed and you can even do the salmon and zuchini in the airfryer if you want to. The air fryer is also why the flat doesn't smell like fish for two days, which is a real concern when your kitchen and your bedroom are basically the same room.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 60g couscous, raw (any plain couscous, the Lidl Bon Gusto is fine, "cous cous" on some packaging is the same thing)
• 250g salmon fillet (one fillet, ideally from the reduced shelf)
• 100g zucchini (one small one, or half a normal one)
• 10g olive oil (split between the couscous water, the zucchini, and the salmon rub)
• Salt, black pepper, dried garlic, dried oregano, dried rosemary
• a bit of a lemon

That's the whole list. Five dried herbs and spices that you should already have in the cupboard if you cook anything at all. If you don't, the pantry meals post covers what's worth keeping on the shelf permanently so dinners like this one are always already in your kitchen.

How to make it

Start the couscous first because it has the most passive time. Different couscous brands have slightly different ratios printed on the back, so look at the label, but mine is one part couscous to one and a half parts water. For 60g of couscous that's 90ml of water. Put the water in a small pot with a pinch of salt and a half teaspoon of olive oil, bring it to a proper boil, then throw the couscous in, stir once, lid on, off the heat. Set a timer for fifteen minutes and don't touch it. The grains are doing the work without you.

Slice the zucchini into rounds about half a centimetre thick. Heat a pan with a small drizzle of olive oil. Salt, pepper, dried oregano, dried rosemary. The zucchini goes in once the oil is genuinely hot (a wet zucchini round in cold oil turns into mush, ask me how I know). Three minutes a side, until the rounds are browned at the edges and soft in the middle. Take them off the heat.

Dry the salmon fillet with a paper towel before you do anything else. This is the step everyone skips and then wonders why the seasoning slid off into the air fryer basket. Pat it dry, both sides, properly. Then a thin rub of olive oil with your hands, just enough to make the surface tacky. Salt, black pepper, dried garlic, dried oregano. Press the herbs in. The dry surface plus the thin oil layer is what makes the seasoning stick.

Air fryer at 180°C for fifteen minutes. Skin-side down if there's skin. The salmon is done when it flakes when you push a fork into the thickest part. If it still looks translucent in the middle, give it two more minutes. Salmon goes from "perfectly cooked" to "dry and sad" faster than chicken, so check it at twelve minutes the first time you make this in your specific air fryer. If you dont take discount salmon, then you can cook it even less.

Now plate. Fluff the couscous with a fork (this is non-negotiable, a clumpy couscous and a fluffy couscous are different foods). Squeeze a little bit of lemon into the couscous and stir once. Pile it on the plate. Zucchini next to it. Salmon on top. Eat immediately, while the salmon is still hot enough to make the couscous around it warm.

Macros (per plate)

• 425 kcal
• 30g protein
• 25g carbs
• 22g fat

Most of the fat is from the salmon (which is the good kind, the omega-3 kind, the kind nutrition people will not stop telling you about). The protein-to-calorie ratio is solid for a non-tracking weeknight dinner, and the whole thing costs maybe four euros per portion if the salmon was reduced.

If you want more dinners that scale this neatly, the dinner for one ideas post covers thirteen weeknight versions, most of which (this one included) work just as well halved as doubled.