Couscous Salad

Turns out that all day when I thought I was thinking about making tabouli, I was actually thinking about a less traditional salad using couscous. Tabouli is a Middle Eastern salad made with bulgur. I prefer using couscous as a grain because of its lighter texture.

My sister Lorelei came over for dinner and we did all the dinner preparations together. I diced ripe cherry tomatoes while she peeled, seeded and diced the cucumber. In the salad, we used organic Italian parsley which added a nice flavour. Sorry curly parsley, you're been replaced.

The difference between flat-leaf (Italian) and curly parsley
Parsley has four main flavor compounds- “fresh” flavor from the compound phellandrene, a “woody” flavor from myristicin, a “warm, sweet” flavor from myrcene, and a “distinctive” flavor from menthatriene.

Flat-leaf or Italian parsleyFlat-leaf, or Italian, parsley has a strong, fresh, "green" flavor that’s generally preferred in cooking and salads that are intended to have a strong parsley flavour such as tabouli.

Curley Parsley This variety of parsley is considered more decorative and has a nice texture for salads. It has a woody and mild flavour when young, and develops its major parsley flavor when it grows. Additionally, curly parsley is good for frying such as in a tomato sauce.

Couscous tabouli salad (serves 4)

Couscous
1 cup couscous
1 1/4 cups boiling water

Cover couscous with boiling water and cover for 10 minutes. Flake with a fork before using.

Ingredients
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped finely
couscous (from above)
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper

Directions

All the above ingredients into the couscous and stir to combine. Add more olive oil, lemon juice, salt or pepper to taste. Mix, chill and enjoy.

Optional

This salad also tastes very good with a little feta cheese crumbled on top.

We also made crusty salmon cakes. Hopefully my sister now has a grasp on just how easy they are to make, especially when you have tins of your Dad's canned salmon in the pantry.