On a busy day, I came home and checked out my fridge. Leftover cucumber, cilantro, chilies and feta cheese from veggie tacos making. Damn. A sad salad seemed to be incoming. Or a Deliveroo.
Do not, however, understimate the power of a well-stocked pantry and freezer ! On days like this, they can save your supper. Green peas ? Always in the freezer. Semolina ? Check. Lemon ? Always one lying around.
And just like that, within 15 minutes, dinner was on the table ; not a sad one, mind you. My companion truthfully kept going on how tasty it was.
The process was easy peasy :
- Pour warm water on your semolina, and wait 10mn ;
- Blanch frozen peas ;
- Slice up your greens (at least cucumber/radishes, shallots/onions + cilantro/mint) ;
- Mix it all together with olive oil and sharmoula/green harissa ;
- Serve and top with feta cheese !
The feta cheese is essential here, giving a true generosity to this fresh, pleasant couscous salad. It’s an amazing no-cook dish to have up your sleeve on those days when it’s too hot out there ; or when even putting a kettle on the stove seems too daunting. Plus, there’s almost no dishes to be done ! Yay !
Couscous Salad with Feta – Recipe
Ingredients – Where to find them
Those ingredients are easy to get from your typical grocery store, and for those which aren’t, you can easily skip them or replace them !
Ingredients – Advice & key points
- Don’t want to make a Sharmoula ? Replace it with green harissa – this is what I initially did, and it worked wonders.
- Green harissa is quite mild and we don’t use much here. If you don’t like it spicy, just remove the green chili pepper instead !
- Optional : Add 1 tsp of curry powder to get some additional depth of taste.
- Feel free to play around with the ingredients used !
- Replace the veggies with what you have on hands ! You could use either cucumber or radishes, or replace them with red bell pepper ; or, replace shallots with onions or green onions, and so on.
- Go for what feels right for you when it comes to herbs ! I find that cilantro and mint work really well here, but chives would be fine too.
- I really recommend frozen peas instead of canned peas ; they are significantly better texture-wise and don’t get overly mushy.
Come now, let’s get your hands dirty !
Couscous Salad with Feta
Description
A super quick couscous salad that bursts with flavours and textures, with crunchy veggies, generous feta cheese, spices, and this signature Mediterranean olive oil & lemon flavour.
Ingredients
For the salad
Toppings
Instructions
Prep your couscous
To a large mixing bowl, add your couscous along with 1 tsp salt.
Add water, following a 1:1 ratio with couscous.
Let the couscous sit and absorb the liquid.
If the water is cold, the couscous will be done within 20 minutes. If it's warm, it will only take 5-10 minutes.Cut your veggies & herbs
Thinly slice your radishes.
Thinly dice your cucumber, shallots and green chili pepper.
Chop up your mint and cilantro.
Mix it all together
With a fork, separate the couscous grains first.
Add your veggies & herbs to your couscous.
Pour in your peas (blanched 3mn if frozen).
Finish with salt, lemon, green harissa or Sharmoula, and olive oil.
Mix it well.
& Serve
Plate it up, then top with a drizzle of olive oil & lots of feta cheese.
Et voilà !! You're done !
Crumble feta cheese with your hands pls, it's tastier!