Couscous salad

Name: Couscous salad
Yield: Serves 4-6
Ingredients: around 500 ml sunflower oil or light olive oil, for frying; 2 small onions, halved and sliced paper thin; 1 medium cucumber, peeled, deseeded and finely diced; 250 ml boiling water; 80 g shelled pistachio nuts; 50 g shelled walnuts, broken up; 4 large vine tomatoes, deseeded and medium diced; 150 g quick-cook couscous; 3 tablespoons olive oil; 50 g green sultanas (or failing that, golden or standard ones); 2 large handfuls of good, wrinkly, salty, little black olives, pitted; 35 g fresh dill, fronds roughly chopped; 50 g fresh parsley, leaves finely chopped; 35 g fresh mint, leaves roughly chopped; 40 g sour cherries, roughly but fairly finely chopped; 50 g dried barberries (optional); 1 medium red onion, finely diced; ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, to garnish; ground black pepper; finely grated zest of 1 medium unwaxed lemon and juice of ½ lemon; 2 teaspoons flaked sea salt, plus extra to season

Preparation info

Serves
4-6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

What to Eat Next

By Valentine Warner

Published 2014

About

The point here is that the couscous should be swarming with treats and colours. You shouldn’t be having to inspect little flecks as if they infiltrated via a messy cook. This is great served with barbecued lamb.

Ingredients

1 medium cucumber, peeled, deseeded and finely diced
2 teaspoons flaked sea salt, plus extra to season
around

Vegan

Method

Mix the cucumber with the sea salt and tip into a colander set over a bowl. Leave to drain for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile pour the sunflower or light olive oil into a saucepan (it should be about 2.5cm deep) and fry the onions over a medium heat, moving them often, for 1½-2 minutes until golden brown. Remove the onions with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper