Rainbow Giant Couscous Salad
Recipe
This salad is a staple in my house. In fact, this is my husband’s recipe that evolved over the years. He initially brought it from the south of France and you could say that originally it was called Tabouleh. But, as you can see by the picture attached, we’ve come a long way Baby…
We make it at least once a week and I usually make jumbo quantities so that we can have it also for lunch the next day. You can substitute giant couscous for the standard version; both are made of semolina and super easy to cook. The other ingredients are just an idea of what you can put in: any can be omitted or substituted as you see fit!
Equipment: Thermomix or medium size saucepan, large salad bowl
Prep time: 15 min
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients
- 300g giant couscous
- Olive oil
- 180g cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 large cucumber; skin removed, peeled
- 180g green or black olives
- 80g baby kale
- 1 red & 1 yellow bell pepper; chopped, seeds removed
- 150g bean sprouts
- 1 can of red kidney beans in water, drained (about 240g)
- A bunch of spring onions (about 100g), washed and finely chopped
- 5 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 4 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- Freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. If using Thermomix, place the couscous in the Thermomix bowl and pour over a double amount of water vs. quantity of couscous. Cook on 90C reverse speed 2 for 9 min and then add a dollop of olive oil.
2. If using a normal cooking pot, place the couscous in the saucepan, add a double amount of water, bring to boil, reduce the heat to simmer and cook for 9 minutes until the couscous is soft and truculent. Then add a dollop of olive oil.
3. In the meantime, add the extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic and (plenty) of freshly ground black pepper to your salad bowl. Mix well.
4. Drain and add the couscous, then tomatoes, cucumber, olives, kale, peppers, bean sprouts, kidney beans and spring onions. Ground more fresh pepper on top and gently stir the whole salad.