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Insalata di Couscous con Verdure Miste, Feta, Erbe & Sumac
Couscous Salad with Mixed Vegetables, Feta, Herbs & Sumac

A colorful, mixed salad, made with nice fresh ingredients, light but satisfying couscous and savory, tangy, sumac to make it a little special... That was supper this evening!

This would make an excellent side dish to any grilled meats, fish or poultry... Or would be great to pack for a lunch at work... Or for a picnic... It is basically a blast of summer, right there on your plate! Even if it doesn't quite feel like summer just yet here in Frankfurt!

Surprisingly enough, you are going to need a frying pan to prepare this salad! I love being full of surprises! Not that this is a fried dish at all... But it is all part of the method to my madness... So read on and find out... And see why! And get ready to want to try it for yourselves!

 

You can vary your ingredients and the quantities thereof, but a few of the basics are important... Peppers for example. you can use regular bell peppers, or as I did the tiny little sweet ones. Celery is also important. I also added cucumber and cherry tomatoes and decided that was more than enough for my supper, but Spring onion, kohlrabi, zucchini, carrots or any other salad green that you might like would be fine. I added a little diced feta cheese to "bulk" my salad up, after all, this was my only meal of the day! And otherwise, apart from the couscous, obviously, I needed plenty of parsley, mint and oregano, the juice of half a lemon, a little salt, pepper and olive oil... And a good tablespoon of sumac.

So as you can see, for one good portion of salad I needed 1 cup of couscous, 4-5 mini peppers, 1/2 of a block of feta cheese, 5 cherry tomatoes and 1 small stalk of celery.

Oh... And a frying pan! 

And so obviously, as simple as these ingredients may be... With all of them put together, it's quite plain that this salad just HAD to be good!

Preparation work was simply a matter of chopping and slicing- but that's all part of the deal of course! And it's no big deal... Just do it!

So, now it's time to grab that frying pan! With a nice glug of olive oil, fry the shredded peppers and the finely sliced celery stalks until they begin to brown. Season with salt and plenty of pepper.

 

Next, add the couscous straight to the pan and a good teaspoon of sumac.

Add enough boiling water to cover the couscous, stir thoroughly, put on the lid, turn off the heat and allow to finish "cooking" in its own residual heat for a good 20 minutes... Which will give it time to both cook, fluff-up nicely and cool down.

Once cool, spoon onto a serving dish and add all of the other ingredients, along with the herbs and feta cheese, drizzle with olive oil, squeeze with the juice of half a lemon and sprinkle with a little more sumac.

 

But the real magic only happens when you toss and mix everything together of course! And it does look pretty magical, doesn't it? Look at those lovely fresh colors!