Couscous is my go-to salad for when we braai. I am always looking for new recipes to try and can tell you that this salsa verde couscous is full of flavour.

Head straight on to the Recipe For ♥ Salsa Verde Couscous ♥
My intention for this year was to turn our store room into a bedroom. This is what it was designed for. But while we were building, the room was used for the building materials. And since then it has become a dumping ground for all sorts of things. Friends of ours were meant to be coming to stay this summer with their children. And they are of the age when they need separate rooms. But, their plans changed, and with that, so did ours. Carli and James are house sitting for the year and their entire house needed to be packed up. And all of their boxes and furniture put into storage. To save them money we offered them the spare room. The first plus side to this was that Dave and I sorted out through everything that has been tucked away for the past decade.
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I used my FOMO boxes and labelled each one so everything that belongs together is boxed together. Our garage has been turned into Dave’s workshop and needs attention, but that can wait. James, his friends and David moved everything and the room is now neatly packed with boxes and furniture. The second silver lining is that for a short while we have a fully furnished house. The pub has its own table, and we have a second outside table, out of the sun. The upstairs spare room has a double bed as well as the bunk beds. And so we have plenty of sleeping space for our December visitors. We also have Hannah’s camp cot ready to be used so now she can have her own bed at Grandpa and Nonna.
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Salsa Verde Couscous
Ingredients
For the couscous
- 180 g couscous
- 2.5 mls sumac
- 500 mls boiling water
For the roast vegetables
- 1 small red onion, peeled, cut in half and thinly sliced
- 4 small red, yellow or orange peppers, cut into thick chunks
- 8 portabellini mushrooms, quartered
- 10 mls olive oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
For the salsa verde
- 2 garlic cloves, roasted *
- 30 g fresh coriander
- 30 g fresh flat leaf parsley
- 15 g fresh mint
- 20 g fresh chives
- 1 lime, zest and juice
- 15 mls apple cider vinegar
- 5 mls tarragon mustard **
- 3 mini gherkins, chopped
- 7.5 mls capers
- 15 mls olive oil
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
For the salad
- 20 g flaked almonds, lightly toasted
Method
For the couscous
- Place the couscous and sumac into a bowl
- Stir to combine then add the water
- Cover with cling film and set aside to cool
For the roast vegetables
- Preheat the oven to 190° Celsius
- Place the onion, peppers, mushrooms and garlic for the salsa verde onto a lined baking tray
- Drizzle over the olive oil and season generously
- Place into the oven and roast for 25 minutes
- Remove from the oven and set aside to cool
For the salsa verde
- Place the garlic, herbs, lime juice and zest, vinegar, mustard, gherkins, capers and olive oil into a blender
- Blitz until as fine as you like it
- Season to taste
For the salad
- Once the couscous has absorbed all the water, add the roast vegetables and salsa verde
- Stir to combine and season to taste
- Top with the almonds and serve
Notes
Inspiration published on Lavender and Lime February 21:
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- 2018 – Pernod Ricard
- 2016 – The Mistake I Made
- 2013 – Creamy Lemon Orange Gelato
- 2011 – Food Quiz Number 47 For A Friday
Today is my parents’ wedding anniversary and my niece’s birthday – blessings to all of them.
I have been craving couscous – I need to try this very soon!
Looks scrumptious Tandy! I love couscous but confession time, I’ve only made is a few times and from a box, how dare I! Yours looks a million times better and I just love the mint, coriander, parsley and chives crammed in. Nutritious and I grow all of those in season! Thanks Tandy!
You can change the herbs to use what you have an abundance of 🙂
It is amazing how we do things when there is a purpose to them, Tandy. Nice for you to have the additional furniture for a while and a cot for Hannah.
Purpose is a great motivator.
You are generous to allow your friends to store their furniture in your spare room. It’s amazing how things accumulate, though, and I bet you are really glad you went through the previous contents.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
It is Dave’s son and his wife so we will of course do anything to help 🙂
I have our store room as my office which isn’t ideal as it can get messy in here and a messy office is a messy mind!
That’s true!
you’ve got a pub in your house? I want to hear more about this! 🙂
It’s a work in progress still….
I do enjoy couscous..
We eat a lot of it.
Yes, It’s usually some outside push that gets us to do something new, like clean out a room or remodel something. The salad looks great–a bit tabouleh like, which I love.
It is very similar 🙂