Simple Couscous Salad

It was my first try at making couscous salad and I thought it would compliment my baked salmon, mixed beans salad and fresh spinach salad with Caesar dressing. It did and was really refreshing and delicious. Couscous turned out to be Matthew's favorite. This recipe was adapted from Laura Vitale's. I added pickled banana ring peppers to add some heat to the bland taste. You may use any feta cheese but I chose to use goat milk feta in brine in this recipe.

Simple Couscous Salad

Ingredients

1 cup couscous

1 cup cold water

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro (parsley)

2 tomatoes

Juice and zest from 1 lemon

1 English cucumber

2 tablespoons chopped pickled banana ring peppers

Dash of freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup feta cheese

Method

1. Place couscous, water and salt in a heavy saucepan. Bring to boil in medium heat. Stir occasionally to prevent couscous sticking to pot. Once water is totally absorbed, turn off heat to low and cook for another 2 minutes. Then cover pot and turn off heat. Let couscous sit in the pot for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork, transfer into and let cool in a large mixing bowl.

2. Wash and wipe dry all vegetables - cilantro, cucumber and tomatoes. Chopped cilantro and banana ring peppers finely; remove seeds from cucumber and tomatoes and cut lengthwise into 1/8" strips and then across into small cubes.

3. Place all cut and chopped vegetables into the mixing bowl with the couscous. Zest lemon and add the juice of lemon (please do not include the lemon seeds!). Add freshly ground black pepper and feta cheese. Toss and mix well. Add salt to taste if you would like it saltier.

Serve with your entree or other favorite side dishes. We served this for Christmas with the children's grandmother who likes something plain and simple. Enjoy!