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Saturday, June 9, 2012

Israeli Couscous Salad


I love Jason's Deli. LOVE it. I love to order a bowl of broccoli and cheese soup and then load up a plate at the salad bar with all of my favorite things. It usually ends up as a salad of a little bit of greens, and a lot of tomatoes, cucumbers, olives & artichoke hearts.

Last time I was there I saw israeli couscous on the bar for the first time in ages. So, I got a little plate and loaded it up with that. It was so delicious, and I was googling recipes to create it at home before we were even back in the car.

I looked at several, but this one looked the best. I made it last weekend, and I just finished making my second batch of it. This is seriously delicious, and is absolutely perfect for summer. It's great to have salad recipes (pasta, potato, grain, etc) that are warm weather friendly. This is one you can take to a picnic or barbeque, leave it out all day and it is still completely safe to eat. And did I mention it is really, really delicious? Because it is =)

Israeli Couscous Salad
(Recipe adapted from this one.)

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup of Israeli couscous/pearl couscous
  • 1 1/3 cup of water
  • 1 t. of salt
  • 1/2 a cucumber, peeled & finely chopped
  • 2 small, vine ripened tomatoes, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup of kalamata olives, finely chopped
  • 1/2 a green bell pepper; finely chopped
  • Juice of one lemon
  • Zest of one lemon
  • 1 T. of red wine vinegar
  • 1 T. of olive oil
  • 2 T. of chopped flat leaf parsley
  • 2 T. of chopped fresh oregano
  • salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
  1. Bring the water to a boil. Add the salt, then the couscous. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 8-10 minutes, or until all water is absorbed. 
  2. Finely chop the vegetables & the olives. Set aside.
  3. Zest a lemon on top of the pile of fresh herbs, and run your knife over the pile of herbs & lemon zest to finely chop it all. 
  4. Combine the vinegar, oil & lemon juice in the bottom of a large mixing bowl. Add in the cooked couscous and the chopped herbs & veggies. Combine well. 
This can be served room temperature, or cold. 


Delicious alongside a black bean burger =)

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this. It sounds great! How close does this come to Jason's Deli?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's not exactly the same, but it's really close. And really, really good =)

      Delete
  2. Can you tell me how many people this recipe serves as it is?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Try it with basil instead of/alongside the parsley!

    ReplyDelete

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