Couscous Salad

8 servings of couscous, prepared and set aside to cool.  (I used 2 2/3 cup of dry couscous 3 1/2 cups of water and a big glub of oil and a nice big pinch of salt)

7 small gourmet cucumbers, washed and chopped (if you can’t find the gourmet, hot house, or English, use regular, but take the skin off)

3 Peppers (I used red, yellow, and orange)

half a large red onion chopped

black olives chopped*

Make the dressing:

2 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped

1/2 c. olive oil

Juice of two lemons

2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar (any white vinegar would do even red wine vinegar would be good)

big squeeze of dijon mustard

lots of dried dill

salt and pepper

Whisk all ingredients in mixing bowl until emulsified.

Add the room temperature couscous to the vegetables.  You want to make sure that the couscous isn’t at all hot, you don’t want it to wilt the cucumbers.

Pour the dressing over the whole salad and toss very well to combine the dressing with the salad.  You could eat this room temperature, or chill it – we did both and it was remarkably delicious.

This made 8 big bowls of salad, if it’s a side dish it could easily serve 10.

*My lovely friend Esperanza turned me on to Lindsay’s Naturals, easily the best canned olives I have ever eaten.  The ingredients list is perfect:  Ripe olives, water and sea salt.  That’s it, nothing else.  They don’t have that tinny taste that so many olives have.  They were perfect in this salad.  Well, the ones that didn’t get eaten as I was chopping them, that is.Similar Posts:

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