Giant couscous summer salad is vibrant salad perfect for entertaining. It boasts pops of traffic light colours and a medley of textures. Chewy couscous, crunchy tomatoes and cucumber and creamy chickpeas in a tangy lemon dressing.
An Israeli salad is finely diced tomato and cucumber. It's often served as a side dish and is known for its simplicity and vibrant colours. I loved the idea of combining the freshness of these ingredients with the chewiness of Israeli couscous.
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🥰Why is this giant couscous summer salad so good?
- hearty enough to serve as a light meal by itself. It covers all the main food groups.
- great alternative to other carb-based salads, like potato and rice. There’s enough freshness from the other ingredients to keep it feeling light.
- a bit ‘different’ but popular
- good option to bring to a potluck. It’s fine at room temperature for a few hours. You’re not going to need the host to clear some fridge space for you 😊
- happens to be vegan too, which is handy for groups where you don’t know what dietary requirements may be.
When it comes to cooking giant couscous, we use the absorption method. Giant couscous, with its size and firm texture, is great at soaking up flavours. Cook it in stock at a gentle simmer with the lid on for about 10 minutes. Remove the pan from heat, keeping the lid on to allow the cooking to complete and most of the liquid to be absorbed. No draining or rinsing is necessary. Stirring through the dressing while still warm maximizes flavour absorption. We stir though the fresh ingredients when the couscous has cooled down a touch.
🥘 Ingredients
Chickpeas – also known as garbanzo beans. Canned chickpeas are pre-cooked and ready to use. This saves time. No need to soak and boil dried chickpeas. We simply drain and rinse them before stirring them through the salad. You’ll need about half a standard-sized can for this recipe.
Giant Couscous – also known as Israeli couscous or pearl couscous. It’s a type of pasta that is larger and chewier compared to the smaller couscous you might get with a tagine. It is often round or disc-shaped and usually already toasted before packaging.
Fresh Herbs – I’ve suggested mint and parsley here for freshness, flavour and colour. You can substitute with whatever you love or have at home – dill, coriander, basil. Fresh (rather than dried) is the way to go here.
Stock – any type you like. Keep it veggie if you want to keep this salad vegan. A lighter-flavoured stock, such as vegetable or chicken will suit this salad best. I use my vegetable stock paste to make up some stock made from ingredients I recognise.
Tomatoes – cherry tomatoes have more skin and less flesh than bigger tomatoes. The skin has good texture, colour and flavour. Plus, the salad will last longer with less of the watery seeds inside tomatoes.
Cucumber – a Lebanese cucumber is about the right size for this salad. You can substitute with half a continental cucumber or a few baby cucumbers.
Dressing Ingredients (olive oil, lemon juice & zest, salt and pepper) – these combine to make a light, fresh ‘vinaigrette’.
🔪 Instructions
Giant couscous is already toasted. Spending a few minutes stirring it through hot olive oil will still add a touch more colour and flavour. Use a wooden spoon for stirring the couscous; it will flick everywhere if you use a flexible spatula 😆
We use the absorption method to cook the couscous. This means that we cook it in the perfect amount of liquid so that it doesn’t need draining after. We need to keep all the liquid in the pan by covering it with a close-fitting lid. Or, weigh it down with something, maybe a can or a pestle. Another way we keep the steam in is by keeping the lid on. This isfor the whole cook time AND the resting time immediately after. Trust the process and don’t check on it!
Cut ingredients into similar sizes for good eatability (not a real word). It looks more profesh too. Of course, we’re not going to chop chickpeas, so use those as a rough size guide for your tomatoes and cucumber. Fresh herbs can be a bit gagging if too coarse though. You can chop these more finely.
Use the smallest holes of a box grater to zest your lemon. Or a rasp-style grater (like Microplane) makes light work of this. If you don’t have a juicer (I don’t), push the tines of a fork into lemon halves. Twist it round as you cup and squeeze the outside of the lemon with the other hand. Works like a dream!
We pour over the dressing and tip in chickpeas shortly after resting the cooked couscous. The couscous and chickpeas will unclump and suck up the flavours better when still hot. The fresher ingredients – the herbs, tomatoes and cucumber – are best added when the mix is cooler. This will help them keep their ‘bite’.
🌈Other Salads
📖 Recipe
Equipment
- Medium saucepan with a heavy lid (or place something heavy on top to keep it down)
Ingredients
- 375 ml stock chicken or vegetable (note)
- Tablespoon olive oil
- 250 g Israeli couscous (also known as Israeli or pearl couscous)
- big handful parsley leaves (about 15g)
- small handful mint leaves (about 5g)
- 200 g cherry tomatoes
- 115 g canned chickpeas
- Lebanese cucumber
Dressing
- 80 ml olive oil
- Zest and juice 1-2 lemons (about 60ml of juice)
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Make Up Stock – we need 375ml.375 ml stock
- Toast Couscous - heat the oil in a medium heavy-based saucepan. Toast the couscous for a minute or two, stirring often with a wooden spoon so that it doesn’t stick. It will darken slightly.Tablespoon olive oil250 g Israeli couscous
- Cook Couscous – pour over the stock, stir well and bring to a boil over high heat. Put the lid on the pan and immediately turn the heat to a minimum. You may want to move the pan to a smaller heat source on your stove top. If the lid is not well fitting and heavy, weigh it down with something heavy. Cook for 10 minutes without lifting the lid. Meanwhile, prep the rest of the ingredients.
Prep Ingredients – transfer the ingredients to a large bowl as you prepare them:
- Parsley & Mint – finely chop.big handful parsley leavessmall handful mint leaves
- Tomatoes – chop into small pieces.200 g cherry tomatoes
- Chickpeas - empty the chickpeas into a sieve under running water and wash off all the gloopy starch water. Shake the excess water off.115 g canned chickpeas
- Cucumber - cut the cucumber in half (no need to peel). Use a teaspoon to scoop out the watery seeds and discard before chopping the flesh into small cubes.Lebanese cucumber
- Make Dressing – shake up the dressing ingredients in a screw-top jar. and pour over the salad.80 ml olive oilZest and juice 1-2 lemons¾ teaspoon salt¾ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Rest Couscous – when the 10 minutes’ cooking time is up, without lifting the lid, remove the pan from the heat. Leave to stand for 10 minutes.
- Dress Couscous – pour the shaken-up dressing over the couscous. Tumble in the chickpeas (leaving the other ingredients for now). Fold through with a flexible spatula. Some of the couscous will clumped together. You can press on these with a flexible spatula to separate them. The oily dressing coating will keep them separate. Put the lid back on and leave for another 15 minutes.
- Finish Salad – tip in the herbs, tomatoes and cucumber and fold though. You can serve now, slightly warm, or leave at room temperature for up to 3-4 hours.
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