I had couscous salad for the first time at a recent lunch appointment. It was at the Privé café. I ordered a grilled salmon served with couscous. I remember the taste very vividly – fresh, crunchy, citrus, light and a little lemony sour. The salad went really well with the salmon, neutralising and ridding it of its possibly fishy and oily tastes.
I must say that I loved the bursting flavours of this salad and have been thinking about it a lot ever since then. I believe it should not be too complicated a dish to handle, given that couscous fluffs up amazingly fast which helps to complement a quick meal. The rest of the salad, really, is about getting the freshest produce from the market and throwing them all together with the couscous.
Ingredients (Couscous Salad):
- Chicken stock: 2 cups
- Couscous: 280g
- Balsamic vinegar: 2 tbsp
- Lemon juice: 1/2 lemon
- Extra virgin olive oil: 2 tbsp
- Cucumber: 1, core removed, diced
- Roma tomato: 3, diced
- Basil leaf (or mint leaf): 12, finely chopped
- Feta cheese: 100g, mashed with fingers
Ingredients (Salmon):
- Olive oil: 2 tbsp
- Salmon fillets (with skin): 2 fillets
- Salt: 1 tsp
- Ground blackpepper: 1 tsp
- Lemon juice: 1/3 lemon
Method:
- Boil stock. Add to couscous and let stand for 5 min. Fluff with fork and set aside to cool.
- Stir in balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.
- Mix in cucumber, tomatoes and basil leaves.
- Top with feta cheese to serve.
- In the meantime, heat shallow pan with olive oil.
- Rub both sides of salmon fillets with salt, blackpepper and lemon juice.
- Place fillets into pan. Sear each side for about 2-3min till lightly browned.
- Place fillets on top of couscous to serve.
Trick:
- Make sure to serve the salmon on the couscous while it’s still hot so that the oil could be absorbed by the couscous and add to its flavour!
Serving:
2 persons
