This recipe is for a light, nutritious, Mediterranean-style salad, perfect for lunch or dinner. Couscous, avocado, chickpeas, feta cheese, and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette combine for flavors that will perk up your typical lunch or dinner salad.
I grew up on southern comfort food. The more breaded, starchy, and fried, the better! College food is, well, whatever is quick, easy, and cheap. So basically, a lot of the same stuff I grew up on. After I started dating my now husband, I started trying new things. He traveled a lot and tried a lot of restaurants and foods that were not common around our small, southern town.
I started to realize that I like so many things that I thought I really, really didn’t like. I heard that Mediterranean food was so good for you. However, I didn’t like avocado, onions, feta, tomatoes, vinegar, or olives, so I would not like Mediterranean food. Well, I still do not like olives. I can enjoy vinegar coupled with the right things. Roasted and sun-dried tomatoes are now a favorite of mine. But it turns out, I really, really like avocados, onions, and feta. So, I started combining these ingredients for lunches. I prep this salad for a whole week for me to eat at home, and to pack for my husband at work. It is a favorite of his and mine. Even my daughter enjoys it, with olives, but without some of the other ingredients.
Ingredients
Salad
- Third cup couscous pearls, cooked
- Half avocado, diced
- Third cup red onions, diced
- One mini cucumber, diced
- Third cup chickpeas, drained
- One clove garlic, finely diced
- Fourth cup roasted red peppers, diced
- Third cup sundried tomatoes
- Half cup arugula, packed
- Feta cheese, to taste
- Fourth cup nutritional yeast
- Salt, to taste
Balsamic Vinaigrette
- Fourth cup balsamic vinegar
- Fourth cup avocado oil
- One tablespoon dijon mustard
- One tablespoon honey
- Half teaspoon Italian seasoning (I prefer herbes de provence), more if desired
- Salt, to taste
Directions for Mediterranean Couscous Salad
To begin making this Mediterranean couscous salad, cook the couscous pearls per the directions on its container. You can also add Italian seasoning to the water to add extra flavor.
Then, dice the red onion, garlic clove, and mini cucumber.
Next, half the avocado. Take the knife and cut a grid into the avocado while still in the peel. Cut across and up and down. This will dice the avocado inside the peel. So much easier than trying to do it outside of the peel.
In your bowl, add the diced cucumbers. Then, squeeze the avocado out of the peel on top of the cucumbers.
Next, add the diced red onion and garlic clove.
Open a can of chickpeas and drain out all of the juice. Add the chickpeas to your bowl.
At this point, the couscous should be finished cooking. Add it to your bowl.
On top of the couscous, add the arugula and sundried tomatoes. If the couscous is still warm, it will slightly wilt the arugula, which I like.
Chop up the roasted red peppers and throw those into the bowl.
Add salt to taste.
In another small bowl, pour in the equal parts of balsamic vinegar and avocado oil.
Then, squeeze in the honey and dijon mustard into the small bowl.
Add your preferred Italian seasoning and salt to taste. Stir with a fork or small whisk until well combined.
Pour the balsamic vinaigrette mixture on top of the salad.
Stir. Stir. And then stir some more.
Add the feta cheese and nutritional yeast to the top. I love adding nutritional yeast to my salads. It tastes a lot like parmesan cheese, adds protein, and has many health benefits. It is a great addition to many dishes.
Stir again until well combined and enjoy!
Notes
I never measure anything out with this salad recipe, so I am giving guidelines that you can – and should – tweak to your liking.
Everything above is for one serving, one bowl. This is easily doubled, tripled, or make enough for a week.
This will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
The balsamic vinaigrette will need to be shaken before each use. It will separate in the refrigerator between uses.
When dicing the ingredients of this Mediterranean couscous salad, make sure to dice them as small as possible. There are a lot of wonderful flavors that all mesh so well together. This way, after it is stirred well, you are able to get a lot of the flavors in one bite. Trust me. It is so good!
Make ahead guidelines
If you want to prep ahead of time or want to make enough for multiple days, you can definitely do that with this recipe. When I do this, I go ahead and dice the onions, garlic, and cucumbers. Also, I go ahead and make enough couscous and drain the chickpeas ahead of time. Make enough balsamic vinaigrette and store in a glass bowl or container. I suggest prepackaging in serving sized containers.
When I send this salad with my husband, I will have everything prepped already in a glass container, along with the sundried tomatoes and roasted red peppers. In the morning, before he leaves for work, I will add the salt, arugula, nutritional yeast and feta cheese. I will pour the balsamic vinaigrette on top of it all and send an avocado with him to cut up and add when it it time to eat. That way, the avocado does not turn colors.
When I am have prepackaged the cucumbers, onions, garlic, couscous, chickpeas, sundried potatoes, and roasted red peppers, I will add the avocado, salt, arugula, nutritional yeast, feta, and balsamic vinaigrette when I am ready to eat.
This salad is so quick and easy to prepare ahead of time and is so simple to put together when you are ready to eat it.
Other salad recipes coming soon
- Mexican avocado salad
- Smoked shrimp avocado salad
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