chard, collards and chick peas over couscous

The last thing we had to use from this weeks box was chard. This recipe started out with me googling "chard and chick peas," but it took on a whole new life when Kenny got home from work. I found this recipe and thought it looked good and simple, so I began prepping for it. I realized we had some collard greens in the fridge too. So I started making the dish following the recipe, but it was all a little bit bland. Kenny suggested adding tomatoes and explained to me that they would be the "umami" that elevated the dish. He also thought of serving it over lemon caper couscous which was the perfect accompaniment. We're such a good team - High five!

Ingredients:
1 bunch chard, roughly chopped
1 bunch collard greens, roughly chopped
1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained
1/2 can diced tomatoes (28 oz.)
2 Tbsp 2x concentrate tomato paste
1/2 an onion, 1/4" dice
2 Tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 pinch cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp red pepper flakes for heat
2 tsp garlic powder
salt to taste

lemon caper couscous:
2 cups whole wheat couscous
4 cups of water
2 pinches of salt
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest
1 Tbsp capers
1/4 cup parsley, roughly chopped

Let's start with the stew, because this recipe has some timing issues. If you threw everything in at once, it would end up really mushy. But it only takes a few minutes, and some proper timing to come out perfectly. So here we go! Add olive oil to a saute pan over medium heat. Add in your onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Toss in the collards and cook just until the leaves are starting to decrease in size, about 4 minutes when stirring. Add in tomatoes, tomato paste, spice, salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes. Throw in your chard and chick peas and stir until chard has reduced by half and your chickpeas are warmed through. Taste and reseason with salt and pepper. Serve over lemon caper and parsley couscous. Oh, I didn't tell you how to make that yet. My bad. Here it comes.

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add in lemon juice, zest, capers, and salt. Allow 30 seconds for flavors to incorporate and then add your couscous. Turn off the heat and cover for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork, and add parsley. Taste and reseason to your liking. Top with above stew and eat it up!

This is really awesome reheated the next few days and sustained me well during the following two workdays without losing any flavor.