Local name: ⴰⵎⴻⴽⴼⵓⵍ
The Kabyle steamed-vegetable couscous, grains rolled in olive oil with peas and carrots, served with a hard-boiled egg.
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A spring and celebration dish in Kabylia, amekfoul is made with whatever the garden gives: broad beans, green beans or young turnips readily replace the peas.
An estimate computed from the recipe quantities and the USDA food composition database. Real values vary with the products used.
Everything is already vegan except the hard-boiled egg served alongside. Swap it for a handful of cooked broad beans or chickpeas stirred through the vegetables, which give the plate the same substance. An extra drizzle of olive oil makes up for the richness of the yolk.
The oil films each grain so it cannot weld itself to its neighbours as it swells. Skip it and the semolina takes up water in a single mass, forming compact lumps that no amount of forking through will fully break up.
Medium, as specified, strikes the balance between swelling and keeping its grain. Fine semolina clumps very quickly and is unforgiving with excess water, while coarse needs more hot water and a longer rest before it turns tender.
What Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia share — semolina, pulses, olive oil — and how their everyday dishes stand up perfectly well without meat.
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