The regular couscous takes no time to cook. You just pour boiling water over it and let it sit for 5 minutes or so. The pearl variety simmers for about 20 minutes. The pearl variety is expensive, though. LOL, I used too small a pan but thankfully it didn't boil over. I was able to transfer it to a bigger pan.

I didn't add any other food to it. I used white pepper, garlic powder and dried chives. I made a dressing with canola oil, rice vinegar and red wine vinegar to coat and once mixed I sprinkled paprika on top. But you can add anything you like--cucumbers, peppers, carrots, tomatoes, olives, onion, radishes, feta cheese, etc. etc. For birds you can leave it plain and just add chopped veggies.

Cathy