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Recipe - Couscous, Carrot and Chickpea Salad

by Erica Green

NOTE: Print this Page for easy reference when cooking.

 
Couscous is quintessentially Moroccan and is so quick to prepare as the base for this one stop salad full of carb, protein, and vegetables.

 
Ingredients

Serves 8-12

Salad

• 1 1/2 cups couscous
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 Tsp. chicken flavoured stock powder
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water.
• 1 x 400g can chickpeas, drained
• 2 carrots, peeled and grated.
• 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley or coriander
• 1/2 cup currants
• 1/2 cup pitted green olives, chopped in half
• 1/2 preserved lemon, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds

Dressing

• 4 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. verjuice
• 1 Tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 large clove garlic, crushed.
• 1 Tsp ras el hanout
• Salt to taste.

 
Method

• Coat couscous, with oil and stock powder.  Pour over the boiling water, cover and set aside for 5 minutes until the moisture is fully absorbed.
• Rake through with a fork to fluff up the grains. 
• Stir through the remaining salad ingredients. 
• Place all the dressing ingredients into a screw top jar.  Shake vigorously and pour over the salad.
• Adjust the seasoning as needed and serve.

About the Recipe

• This recipe is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
• Massel make a range of vegan stocks and stock powders which are flavoured to be similar to chicken or beef stock. You can also get low salt varieties if that is an issue for you. They are a staple item in my pantry.
• I used a mandoline here for the carrots.  It is a great tool for very finely slicing vegetables.  Just be careful though, and please use the guard.  I have a bit of a love hate relationship with the appliance myself, with scars to show for my disrespect of the equipment.
• This recipe calls for canned chickpeas.  You can of course cook your own, but good quality canned chickpeas are so readily available that I don't usually bother. Just make sure that the brand that you buy has been pre-soaked otherwise they tend to be too hard.
• This salad can be easily modified.  Add other vegetables, use different dried fruits, nuts and seed.  Eg: replace currant with cranberries, sultanas, or chopped dried apricots.
• The preserved lemons are quite salty so be careful adding additional salt.
• You can buy preserved lemons in specialty stores or you can make your own.  (See this other recipe in the on-line magazine Autumn 2020 edition)

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