Learning to improvise

So here I am in France for half a year with my own kitchen and lots of yummy ingredients. I hope to make the most of it, and so far I have been cooking up a storm with fairly limited equipment and counter space. I just found out this morning, though, that this situation is going to change: we're moving to a nicer place with a HUGE, extremely well-equipped kitchen!! I just about fainted with joy when I saw that.
I resolved that while in France I would be more flexible about my random food schedule. I would cook not just what my crazy system told me to, but what was in season or cheap or looked tempting from the many food blogs I looked at. And so far, it's working pretty well! I've made lots of soup because it's freezing, I've been working with leeks and pumpkin and root vegetables because they're in season, and, yes, I've been tweaking recipes in my recipe system to make them fit the situation better.
Hopefully I'll get around to posting some of my other improvised favorites, but what we had for dinner last night was so surprisingly delicious that I want to start with that. The inspiration for this dish was a recipe from Bon Appetit for a Mediterranean Couscous Salad with Roasted Vegetables. It was on my list. But here's the problem: This salad involved summer vegetables like eggplant and zucchini and was to be served cold. When it's 54 degrees in the kitchen, the last thing you want to eat is a cold salad. And eggplant and zucchini are not exactly January vegetables. So I took what I knew of Tunisian/Mediterranean flavors and turned the dish into a warm couscous salad with roasted winter vegetables. I used pumpkin and leek and, well, a red pepper from some Dutch greenhouse. I added some canned garbanzos and roasted it all together, then added all that to the couscous before squeezing on some lemon and adding some Mediterranean accents like feta cheese and capers.
I was quite nervous about serving this: Claire claims not to like couscous, while Sami and Claire both object to orange vegetables like squash and sweet potatoes. But they both shoveled in platesful of it. I was worried there wasn't going to be enough for lunch today! Verdict: success. Roasted vegetables rock. Improvisation is fun!

Here's my recipe:
Warm Mediterranean Couscous Salad

Improvisation tips: If you have it, consider sprinkling cumin and coriander on the roasted vegetables. Also some harissa or chile paste on the side would be quite delightful. And maybe the addition of some green leafy vegetable like kale (which is sadly unavailable in France) would be nice. Also, all quantities are approximate here. Dial up or down as you wish.

1 winter squash (I used a big slice of pumpkin; I bet you could also use that pre-cut squash from Trader Joe's)
1 leek, white and light green parts only
1 onion
1 red bell pepper
4-6 T. olive oil
Salt, pepper, other spices to taste
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 clove garlic, minced
1 c. couscous
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2-3 T. minced cilantro
2 T. capers
1/4 c. crumbled feta

Heat the oven to 425. Get out a big sheet pan and line it with parchment paper. If you're going the whole squash route, cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, and put it cut-side down on the lined sheet pan. Put it in the oven for a good 30 minutes. That will help you peel and cut the squash without peeling and cutting yourself. I think you can also microwave the halved squash for about 5 minutes, if that floats your boat.
While the squash is cooking, prep your other ingredients: I did the pepper in medium squares, the leek in matchsticks, and the onion in wedges. Put in a bowl and toss with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and spices. When the squash is at least partially cooked, take it out, let it cool a bit, then peel it and cut the flesh into bite-sized cubes. Add this to the other vegies, toss together, and put all of that on the sheet pan. Put it back into the oven and let it roast for about 20 minutes. Add the garbanzos and give it another 10 minutes. When you take the veggies out of the oven, stir in the garlic.
During that last 10 minutes of roasting, cook the couscous according to package directions. That would probably involve boiling 1 cup of water with a bit of salt and butter, adding the couscous, and letting it sit, covered, off the heat for about 5 minutes. Fluff that with a fork.
Now get a big bowl out. Carefully pick up the parchment you have your veggies on and use it to pick them up and dump them into the bowl. Top that with the couscous, squeeze the lemon over, and sprinkle on the cilantro and capers. Toss that all together lightly, then sprinkle over the feta cheese. Get ready for lots of deliciousness!
This will probably serve 4.