Lesley Johnston’s Spicy Couscous Salad
Although we have as a nation heartily embraced pasta, couscous is still relatively uncommon. Looking at it, you may think it's a grain; however, it's small steamed granules of rolled semolina and technically pasta. Pay attention to what you buy. Today's recipe uses the small type of couscous. To cook these you simply need to pour hot stock over them and leave. (In Israel coucous balls are much bigger: in Lebanon bigger still. These take much longer to prepare.)
Moroccans, I think, would be horrified. There, couscous refers to the whole dish, usually with meat or vegetables. For them, you would NOT be making a salad out of it and probably not using what they would deride as the instant stuff. I will simply say that Lesley's original inspiration came from that well known North African expert, Delia Smith, in her excellent Summer Collection. Delia tops hers with roasted vegetables and salad leaves and serves it with a sauce made of olive oil, tomato purée and lime juice, seasoned with cumin and cayenne pepper.
This is a version which L made for a lunch party the other week. I've left quantities vague (a) because I wasn't watching her prepare it, (b) she can't remember how much she used, and (c) half the fun is making it up as you go along. As with any pasta dish, if you don't supply enough flavour and texture it could be very boring. You could have crunch via raw onion, pepper and cucumber, but not our thing. In the recipe I've said rose harissa but in the cupboard we had a jar of Ottolenghi Pomegranate, Rose and Preserved Lemon Harissa.
Obviously you can make it veggie by using vegetable stock: we prefer chicken. A word about herbs. Use a lot. After chopping there was at least half a mug of parsley. You could use mint, or a mixture of both. Finally, I would urge you not to omit the pomegranate seeds. They look fantastic, add crunch and, of course their unique sweet and sour quality.
Ingredients (this produces a party sized bowl. If cooking for 4, scale down proportionately)
275g couscous; 500ml boiling chicken or vegetable stock; 1 - 2 tbsp rose harissa; quantity of chopped sundried tomatoes (use the ones preserved in oil); quantity of chopped preserved artichokes; large quantity of chopped curly parsley or mint (see above); pomegranate seeds; s & p.
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Put the couscous grains in a heat proof bowl and pour over the stock. Season with s & p, stir and leave for five minutes. By then the liquid should have been absorbed. Stir again with a fork to separate the grains, then mix in the harissa. Gently mix in the sundried tomatoes, artichokes and herbs.
Before serving top with a generous amount of pomegranate seeds.