Healthy Mediterranean Couscous Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

Happy New Year friends!

January is the month that I started “Marilena’s Kitchen”, four years ago.  Since that first recipe (Greek Filo Chicken Pie), 265 blog posts arrived into your inbox with a variety of (mostly) Mediterranean recipes.  I am very grateful to you for your support and encouragement, and, I am also so happy to know how well received my recipes have been.  Your comments and words of encouragement have meant a lot to me.

Updated Blog Look

I hope you like the new banner at the top of today’s blog entry.  Over the Holidays, my daughter Elizabeth helped create it using some of my favorite food photographs. She is my “tech support” and a main reason that this blog runs smoothly, as I cannot pretend to understand the many technical aspects that happen at the back end of the blog!

New Recipe

Now, about today’s recipe:  this Mediterranean couscous salad is an easy way to make the transition into our New Year’s resolutions for healthy eating, without sacrificing on the taste.  This delicious salad could not be easier to make.  The only cooking involved is to making the couscous itself.  After that, assembly is easy by tossing together all the ingredients along with a bright lemon vinaigrette.  For me, this is a very satisfying meal on its own, but for those meat lovers in your house, you can serve this as a side dish next to some rotisserie chicken or other leftover protein you might have in your refrigerator.  Even the pickiest eater will be hard-put to resist the visual appeal (and taste) of this salad!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Healthy Mediterranean Couscous salad with lemon vinaigrette

 

Save Print

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

A delicious salad with bold Mediterranean flavors that you can make ahead of time!

Author: Marilena Leavitt

Recipe type: Salad

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 cup pearl (or Israeli) couscous
• ½ cup red onion, minced
• 6 oz. (about ½ can) chickpeas or cannellini beans, rinsed well
• 3 oz. sun dried tomatoes, sliced in olive oil, with the oil
• ½ cup fresh parsley or fresh cilantro, chopped
• ¼ cup mixed olives (packed in olive oil), cut in half and drained
• 6 TBSP. extra virgin olive oil
• --- zest and juice of one (or half) medium organic lemon
• ½ tsp. sea salt
• ¼ tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 1 medium garlic, finely minced (or grated with a microplane)
• ¼ tsp. ground coriander (optional)
• 2-3 oz. arugula
• 1-2 oz. Greek Feta cheese, crumbled

Instructions

1. Cook couscous in plenty of water, according to the package instructions. Once cooked, drain the water and let the couscous cool a bit then place in a large bowl.
2. To the bowl, add the red onion, chickpeas, sun dried tomatoes and olives.
3. In a separate, small bowl, mix together the olive oil, lemon zest and juice, grated garlic, sea salt, black pepper and coriander. Pour it over the couscous mixture, to taste (you might not need it all). Toss well to combine. Gently fold in the arugula, sprinkle the Feta over the salad and taste. Adjust the seasoning if necessary, and serve.

Notes

Instead of the pearl couscous, you can also use regular couscous (which does not require any cooking – just soak it hot water and fluff it up with a fork). You can also substitute any of the ancient grains like barley, farro or wheat berries for the couscous in this recipe – all of which are high in fiber and protein!

3.5.3240

THANK YOU FOR READING AND FOLLOWING ALONG

If you are not already following my blog, please subscribe to Marilena’s Kitchen to have every new post delivered right to your inbox!

I love hearing from you, please leave me a comment below.