Shared recipe · Mediterranean
Harissa pork belly couscous bowls with pickled onion
Serves 4 · 2 hr 45 min total
Slow-roasted pork belly rubbed with harissa, served over pearl couscous with warm chickpeas, tomato, cucumber and a sharp red-onion pickle.
Ingredients
Sauce
- 0.5 tspBlack pepper
- 1Chicken stock cube
- 0.5 tspChilli flakes
- 3Garlic
- 3 tbspHarissa paste
- 150 gNatural yoghurt
- 2 tbspOlive oil
- 2 tspSea salt
- 1 tspSugar
- 4 tbspWhite wine vinegar
Veg
- 200 gCherry tomatoes
- 200 gCucumber
- 30 gFresh parsley
- 2Red onions
Starch
- 300 gPearl couscous
Protein
- 600 gPork belly joint
- 400 gTinned chickpeas
Method
- 1Heat the oven to 220°C. Pat the pork belly joint dry, score the skin, and rub with 1 tsp of the sea salt and the black pepper. Leave it 10 minutes.
- 2Crush 2 garlic cloves and rub them over the pork with 2 tbsp of the harissa paste and 1 tbsp of the olive oil. Roast in a roasting tin for 25 minutes, then turn the oven to 160°C and cook 70–80 minutes more, until a knife slides in easily and the meat is tender (about 90°C if you probe). Spoon off excess fat once halfway.
- 3While the pork roasts, peel and thinly slice the red onions on a mandoline. Toss with 3 tbsp of the white wine vinegar, the sugar, 1/2 tsp of the sea salt and the chilli flakes. Leave to pickle.
- 4About 15 minutes before the pork is done, warm the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil in a saucepan and toast the pearl couscous for 1 minute. Crumble in the chicken stock cube, add 500 ml water and simmer 8–10 minutes until the grains are just tender and the liquid is absorbed.
- 5Drain the tinned chickpeas. Spoon 1 tbsp of the rendered pork fat into a frying pan, add the chickpeas and the remaining 1 tbsp harissa paste, and warm for 3 minutes.
- 6Rest the pork for 10 minutes, then slice it. Taste the couscous and stir through half the parsley, 1 tbsp of the white wine vinegar and 1/4 tsp of the sea salt.
- 7Halve the cherry tomatoes and slice the cucumber. Stir the remaining garlic clove, crushed, into the natural yoghurt with the last 1/4 tsp sea salt.
- 8Spoon the couscous into bowls and top with the pork, chickpeas, tomatoes, cucumber, pickled onion and yoghurt. Scatter over the rest of the parsley and serve.