After a beautiful, warm, sunny day, we’ll sit down this evening to the first G&T of the season, some grilled meat off the barbecue and this flavourful little Couscous Salad. It’s exciting to be preparing salads once more and to be able to source such beautiful ingredients from both the local Farmer’s Market and our own back garden.
Couscous Salad with Currants and Cashews | Gather and Graze
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Couscous
- 1½ Cups Water
- ¼ Teaspoon Salt
- 3 Spring Onions/Shallots (Sliced finely)
- 1 Medium Red Capsicum/Pepper (Diced finely)
- 1 Zucchini/Courgette (Diced finely)
- ½ Cup Roasted Unsalted Cashew Nuts (Roughly Chopped)
- ⅓ Cup Dried Currants
- ¼ Cup Raw Pepitas
- ⅓ Cup Flat-leaf Parsley (Chopped)
- 1½ Tablespoons Salt-Reduced Soy Sauce
- 1½ Tablespoons (Freshly Squeezed) Lemon Juice
- 4 Tablespoons Sunflower Oil
- 1 Clove Garlic (Crushed)
- Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Instructions
Place the water into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat and tip in the couscous and salt. Stir briefly to ensure couscous is evenly covered with the water. Allow to stand for 10 minutes or until cooked to your liking.
In the salad bowl you intend to serve the salad in, combine the shallots, capsicum, zucchini, cashew nuts, currants and pepitas.
When the couscous is ready, fluff it up with a fork and then add it to the other ingredients in the salad bowl. Stir gently to combine.
Make the dressing by combining the soy sauce, lemon juice, oil, garlic and a grinding of black pepper. I find it useful to use a small jar when making dressings… which I can shake to mix well.
Add some of the dressing, spoonful by spoonful, gently stirring in, until you have a nice coating over the entire salad. Please note that you may not need to use all of the dressing… just go by taste and sight.
Gather & Graze 
Wow! I love the colours in this salad.
Thanks Emma! It makes for a rather festive-looking salad, doesn’t it!? 🙂
This is very similar to salads we often eat. Yum! Love cous cous.
I’m looking forward to adapting this one right the way through summer with all sorts of different ingredients! Such a versatile base to work with! Lovely to hear from you Sherry 🙂
I see the photo’s but did not get this post in my inbox. Salad is stunning.
Thanks Suzanne! Has that happened before, with posts not showing in your inbox? Happy to know that the photos are showing, but a little worried if people aren’t being prompted to come and have a look at the posts… :o/
Yes it has hsppened before for dome reason i had to unfolliw snd follow again and check off the i wanted immediate notificatipn. Dometimes eordpress is strange. I do get the makority.
Lovely. It is good to be back in salad weather again isn’t it.
Oh it is indeed Bridie! Cheers! 🙂
We are of the same mind, Margot. When Spring (finally) arrives and the markets re-open, I cannot wait to make a nice salad to celebrate. Once, it was a pasta salad but then I started blogging. Now couscous rules the day. I usually dress mine with oil & vinegar but I really must give your soy dressing a try. I think it would be a welcome change.
I think it must be something to do with the re-emergence of all the bright colours of the greens and vegetables that go into making a gorgeous salad – it really is a celebration on a plate (or bowl as the case may be…)! 🙂
Such a gorgeous looking salad, Margot! I have never made a couscous salad! It looks too delicious to resist! Who said that it can be eaten only in a warm weather? 😉
Thank you Francesca! It was also really lovely with some slow-roasted lamb, wrapped up in some warm flatbreads (our dinner last night). I think you’re right… it could be eaten absolutely any time of the year! Or better yet, adapted with seasonal vegetables – it would be fabulous with little chunks of roasted root vegetables or pumpkin!
Sitting here with a blanket wrapped around me and a steaming cup of tea, longing for warmth and a G&T! Hey, that rhymes! 🙂 Sounds wonderful Margot. You know, I saw your cous cous salad and my first thought was ‘I don’t care if the wind is blowing cold 60 miles an hour winds through here right now, I want this cous cous!’ So wonderfully fresh. And I might add, perfectly tossed…
Love a bit of poetry Seana! 🙂 Thanks so much for the thumbs up for my couscous salad – I was thinking it might go well on our Christmas table for lunch!?
I hope you still manage to get a little more sunshiny weather before the end of Fall… it can’t be over just yet!
Margot, I have never tried making couscous salad, but yours looks beautiful 🙂
So kind of you to say Linda – thank you! Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!
Don’t you just love it when the warm weather returns and salads and outdoor eating make a comeback? Your salad looks so good that I’d enjoy it as a meal in itself – yum!
Thanks Sam! I had some of the left-overs for lunch today and also plan to put some into our lamb wraps for dinner tonight – quite a versatile little salad! Oh and yes, being able to eat al fresco again (without having to rug up) is just wonderful! 🙂
It’s like reading salt for the wounds! Warm, sunny day…first G&T of the season! And I’m sitting here shivering. Well, not quite. It’s actually quite mild. But we’re heading into winter…my least favourite season. And it’s British Winter Time from tonight. Even earlier today I couldn’t help but notice just how weak the light is getting. Photos that I took in 2 sessions were so different. The latter were almost blue! To the extent they weren’t usable. There’s always tomorrow. Ah, the joys of warm spring weather. How I miss it already. And I know you’ll make the most of it. Enjoy that G&T. And the barbies!
I’m sorry Johnny… the novelty of warm/hot weather will wear off all too soon… though I’m not whinging yet! Winter is my least favourite season too, so I guess that makes spring even more attractive than it might be to others. That first G&T was superb… even got to make use of some of our little home-grown limes for the first time from the garden!
Easy, tasty, good! Love it!
Cheers! Much appreciated! 🙂
I love couscous and am always looking for new ways to enjoy it! This looks delicious!
Thanks so much Laura… we thought it was delicious as is, but there are so many ways of adapting it to personal tastes! Cheers, Margot
Have been back to G&Ts and salads awhile already 🙂 ! Lovely combination I have to prepare soonest. Like the extra flavour and texture of the currants and the pepitas . . .
Great to hear Eha! Our bottle of gin was looking scarily low when we pulled it out of the freezer yesterday evening… luckily there was just the perfect amount for 2 G&Ts. Off to stock up tomorrow! I hope you do give the salad a try… it does have great flavour!
I haven’t cooked with couscous forever but this is making me want to crack it out! So colourful.
More often than not we have couscous with a tagine/casserole, but it’s really wonderful in a salad too! Thanks so much for your comment Hungry Mum! 🙂
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