Couscous is a dish of semolina traditionally served with a meat or vegetable stew spooned over it. Couscous is a staple food in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya. Couscous was elected as the third favorite dish of French people in 2011 in a study. The name is derived from Arabic language meaning well rolled, well formed, rounded. Numerous different names and pronunciations for couscous exist around the world.

The semolina is sprinkled with water and rolled with the hands to form small pellets. They are sprinkled with dry flour to keep them separate, and then sieved. Any pellets which are too small to be finished granules of couscous and fall through the sieve will be again rolled and sprinkled with dry semolina and rolled into pellets. This process continues until all the semolina has been formed into tiny granules of couscous.

These would then be dried in the sun and used for several months. Couscous was traditionally made from the hard part of the durum, the part of the grain that resisted the grinding of the relatively primitive millstone. In modern times, couscous production is largely mechanized, and the product is sold in markets around the world.

Properly cooked couscous is light and fluffy, not gummy or gritty. Traditionally, North Africans use a food steamer. The base is a tall metal pot shaped rather like an oil jar in which the meat and vegetables are cooked as a stew. On top of the base, a steamer sits where the couscous is cooked, absorbing the flavors from the stew. The lid to the steamer has holes around its edge so steam can escape.

Couscous is among the healthiest grain-based products. It has a superior vitamin profile to pasta, containing twice as much vitamins as pasta. In terms of protein, couscous has 3.6 g for every 100 calories, equivalent to pasta, and well above the 2.6 g for every 100 calories of white rice. Furthermore, couscous contains a 1% fat-to-calorie ratio, compared to 3% for white rice and 5% for pasta.