Healthy Couscous Salad
This couscous salad is packed with flavors and textures from sweet and chewy to toasty and crunchy! An awesome side salad to have on hand.
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked Moroccan couscous
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
- A few pinches of sea salt
- 1 mini cucumber, roughly chopped (or 1 cup of roughly chopped English cucumber)
- 1 cup quartered grape tomatoes
- 1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds, toasted
- 1/4 cup raisins, black or golden
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped dried apricots
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped Castelvetrano olives
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
- 2 TBSP chopped fresh mint
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- 1 tsp smoked paprika (optional)
- 1 tsp cumin
Instructions
- Cook the couscous as per the directions on the package, but use vegetable broth instead of water for extra flavor.
- When the couscous is done, stir in the raisins and dried apricots, and cover to let it sit while you get your other ingredients ready.
- Let's toast the almonds! Heat a dry pan over high heat, and once the pan is hot, reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the almonds to the pan and toast them for about 5 minutes, or until they're aromatic and starting to turn golden in color. Be sure to shake the pan every once in a while to prevent the almonds from burning. (This is very important.)
- Transfer the couscous to a large serving bowl; add the toasted almonds, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, parsley, mint, lemon juice, lemon zest, cumin, paprika, and a nice glug or two of extra virgin olive oil.
- Mix the salad well by giving everything a good toss. Have a taste and season with more sea salt if necessary.
- I like to pop the salad in the fridge for a few hours before serving as it allows the flavors to mingle and everything just becomes tastier overall. But you could serve this right away, if needed.