Paul Ivic, the chef patron of Tian restaurant in Vienna, one of the few Michelin starred vegetarian restaurants worldwide, is with us sharing a recipe that he likes to cook at home. Many of his favourite home-cooking recipes were published in his books Vegetarian winter cuisine (Vegetarische Winterküche) and Vegetarian summer cuisine (Vegetarische Sommerküche)

“I have learnt this dish from a contact of mine from Morocco. This is the way I like my couscous best: very light and intense at the same time.”

Paul Ivic

Ingredients

Carrots:

1 shallot
1 garlic clove
30 g ginger
2 tbsp ginger
2 pieces of star anise, allspice berries and Sichuan pepper
1 tsp of dill seeds, fennel seeds
1–2 tsp Ras el Hanout
500 g Baby-carrots or young carrots
1 tsp sugar
150 ml carrot juice
salt
juice of 1 lime
1/2 bunch of dill
1/2 bunch of coriander

Couscous:

500 ml of hot matcha tea
200 g of couscous
juice and zest of one lime
salt
pepper
sesame oil
4 handfuls of fresh baby spinach

For the Oriental carrots

Peel the shallot, garlic and ginger and chop everything into small cubes. Heat the sesame oil and cook the cubes in it. Cut the unpeeled carrots into halves lengthwise or if they are really small, leave them whole. Add them into the pan to the cubes and cook a bit. Sprinkle them with sugar and caramelise them quickly. Add the carrot juice and let it evaporate. Cover the pot and cook the vegetables for about 10 min. Finish it with salt and lime juice.

For the couscous

Pour hot matcha tea into a bowl.
Put the couscous into a fine sieve and dip it into the tea. Mix it well and let it draw the matcha for 1-2 minutes. Take the sieve out of the tea, let the couscous drain, then put it into a bowl and loosen it up with a fork. Season with lime juice and zest, salt, pepper and sesame oil. Add spinach leaves. Pick the dill and coriander leaves. Top the couscous with the carrots and herbs and add some cooking liquid from the carrots.