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Couscous is a traditional North African food, made from wheat granules, that can be a delicious alternative to rice or pasta — and the kind that’s sold in our stores is usually pre-steamed, so it takes only a few minutes to cook. You literally just add (boiling) water. This week’s recipe, which combines couscous with vegetables and chickpeas, can serve as either a salad or a complete light meal. It comes to us from the Big Mill Bed and Breakfast in Williamston, North Carolina, whose site tells us “Staying at Big Mill is not ‘roughing it'” — though it is a quiet rural getaway.
Couscous Salad
2015-01-30 10:29:29
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Ingredients
- • 1 10-ounce box plain couscous
- • ½ teaspoon sea salt plus more for the cooked couscous, if desired
- • 2-3 small spring onions & tops, chopped
- • 5 or 6 radishes, diced small
- • 1 small pickling cucumber or ½ English cucumber
- • 1 medium size red, yellow or orange bell pepper, seeded and diced
- • 1 15-ounce can chick peas (garbanzo beans) drained and rinsed
- • 1 cup frozen green garden peas
- • 1 small (2.25 ounce) can sliced black olives, drained
- • 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
- • Several fresh mint leaves, minced
- • Juice of 4-5 lemons
- • 1/3 cup olive oil
- • Handful of grape tomatoes, halved and reserved
- ** Other things you can add: ½ cup fresh snow peas, cut in half, or ½ cup blanched green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
Instructions
- Cook couscous according to package directions, adding the sea salt to the water. (If youdo not have directions, do the following: Put 2 cups of water and the salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add 1 ½ cups couscous and cover. Let stand for 5 minutes and then fluff with a fork.)
- Stir in the diced onions, radishes, cucumber and pepper. Add the chick peas, garden peas and olives. Stir in the minced parsley and mint.
- Add the lemon juice and olive oil, both to taste. If needed, add more of both.
- Serve chilled over a bed of leaf lettuce. Just before serving add the halved grape tomatoes. If you plan to keep some of the salad, do not add the tomatoes to the entire salad, just to the portions that you plan to serve.
- Yield: 8 1-cup servings
- This salad will keep for several days in the refrigerator.
Notes
- This salad can be as colorful and as interesting as you make it
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