Introduction: Couscous Salad

By CLAMP Podcast
About: Hi! I'm a slightly feral mountain hermit that likes to be helpful. I do community management at Instructables & Tinkercad. 🙌 Want to hear me chat about making? Search "CLAMP Podcast" on YouTube or your favorit…
Couscous salad is one of my go-to sides. It takes about 20 minutes including prep and all! You can also mix up the vegetables and seasonings so it will go nicely with whatever else you've made for dinner.

I'm using Israeli (also called pearl) couscous for this salad - it's my favorite type, and I find that it always cooks up well, while other types of couscous tend to be a bit more prone to getting soggy. I especially like Bob's Red Mill tri-color pearl couscous - so if you can find that go for it! :D

If you want to get really fancy with your couscous salad you can cook the couscous in a broth and saute the vegetables you're adding into it, but I like to keep it simple!


Couscous Salad recipe:

  • 1 cup Israeli couscous
  • 1 1/4 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 - 1 cups of vegetables of choice - I'm using red onions, green olives, kalamata olives and red pepper
  • extra oil, vinegar, spices, citrus juice, etc - whatever you like!

I'm using green and kalamata olives in mine, so it's nice and acidic without the addition of vinegar or lemon juice. You might want to add a little if you're using all fresh veggies. You can also saute your vegetables before adding them, I just like the crunch that raw veggies give the salad. :)


Directions:

  1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat until it's nice and hot.
  2. Add in the dry couscous and cook while stirring until it's starting to brown slightly and smell nutty. This will only take a few minutes.
  3. Add in the water and bring to a boil.
  4. Turn the heat down to a simmer, cover the pot and cook for ten minutes, undisturbed.
  5. After ten minutes, the couscous should have soaked up all the liquid, if not, continue to simmer covered until the liquid is gone.
  6. Remove from the heat and mix in your vegetables!
  7. At this point, season it however you like - I like to used salt, pepper and oregano for the mix of veggies I always use.
  8. Enjoy! It's great hot or cold, and good for quite a few days after you make it.

Thanks to audreyobscura for being my photographer! ^_^