One of my favorite side dishes to make during the summer is this amazingly delicious Israeli Couscous Salad!
A Delicious Vegetable and Couscous Side Dish
This dish is great for potlucks, picnics, lunches to go, or as a side with dinner. It’s gorgeous — colorful and full of fresh herbs and is always a hit!
What’s in Israeli Couscous?
The recipe is actually pretty simple. You start with pearl sized couscous then add veggies — chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion and green onions. Next add fresh herbs mint and parsley (either Italian parsley or curly parsley work fine). Finally, add squeezed lemon juice and some sea salt then toss!
Toasted pita strips put this salad over the top!
This salad is so good already but the toasted pita chips just take it to the next level. They’re super easy to make in a toaster oven. But you could use a traditional oven too or even a regular toaster, just cut into pieces and add butter after you toast (so you don’t start a fire!)
When you serve this dish in a large bowl, say for a potluck, you can put the pita chips on the side as a topping so they don’t get soggy. You may also want to cut into smaller pieces so they go further. If serving yourself, you can go with larger pieces. Up to you!
Mint and Lemon Juice = A Classic Mediterranean Flavor Combo
It’s hard to believe this salad doesn’t have a fancy dressing and yet it’s so flavorful! I attribute this to the duel onions but also the combination of fresh mint and lemon juice. The two are just magical together.
Sea salt or regular salt?
Here’s the deal. I almost always use sea salt because it has a little extra flavor vs. regular table salt. It’s not mandatory but I do recommend it if you’re looking for optimum flavor.
This delicious and easy recipe for Israeli Couscous salad was featured on Meal Plan Monday and South Your Mouth!
Israeli Couscous Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup Israeli pearl couscous
- 1 ½ cup water
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 cup grape tomoatoes quartered
- 1 cup chopped cucumbers
- 2 tbsp fresh mint leaves chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
- ¼ red onion finely chopped
- 5 green onions finely chopped
- ¼ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice about 2 lemons
- ½ cup olive oil more or less to taste
- Sea salt to taste
- 1 pita
- 1 tbsp butter
Instructions
- Add water to a medium sized pot and bring to boil. Salt the water if desired for extra flavor. Once boiling stir in couscous pearls and olive oil. Cover and reduce to simmer for 8 minutes.
- Scrape cooked couscous pearls into a large bowl and let cool.
- Chop tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, green onions and herbs. Add to couscous.
- Pour lemon juice and olive oil over cous cous and veggies and toss everything together. Add sea salt to taste.
- Slice pita in bite sized pieces. Coat both sides with butter. Bake in toaster oven at 350˚for 2-3 minute or until light golden brown.
- Serve immediately or store in fridge then toss before serving.