Mediterranean Cous Cous Salad

If you read my Greek Nachos with Feta Cheese Sauce post, you know that I love Greek salad. This Mediterranean Cous Cous Salad is another non-traditional way to enjoy these delicious flavors. I absolutely LOVE cous cous…I could eat it for every meal. And I also love using cous cous in salad…so combining one of my favorite salads with cous cous just makes sense…..

The combination of red onion, cucumber, feta, and Greek dressing puts this cous cous salad over the top.

Can I just mention how awesome and fun it is to have this blog? This week I applied for a few different advertising companies so I can hopefully make some money off The Garlic Diaries and do this as my job. By no means am I doing this solely for the money, but…come on…who doesn’t have the dream of doing something they love as their career??

I have my readers to thank for this opportunity to actually develop this passion into a monetary postition! I wouldn’t be able to even consider this goal without you. So thank you to any subscribers and to anyone who stumbles upon this page and takes the time to read my posts!

So there were a few cool little things I discovered while creating this recipe.

First of all…the grocery store didn’t have any crumbed feta, so I had to buy the block of feta that you crumble yourself. I could be remembering incorrectly, but I’m pretty sure it’s the exact same price. And here is the benefit of the block rather than crumble: you are able to determine the size you want your feta crumbles to end up in. This might not seem significant to you at all, but I find it slightly annoying that when I get to the bottom of the pre-crumbled-feta box, I find tiny, baby crumbs of cheese. I actually really liked crumbling it myself and being able to decide how big the pieces would be in the salad.

The second important discovery…and this is a big one…there is a way to make red onions WAY less sharp. I am the type of person who thinks they are very strong and can only eat red onions in very small portions or they overpower my entire dish.

So here is the discovery…if you soak the sliced red onions in heavily iced water for five to ten minutes, it takes a significant amount of the bite out of the onions. It makes them way more mild and way more enjoyable. This way you get the yummy flavor of red onion with much less bite!

I was pretty blown away by this find.

Here is why you should make this recipe:

You love Greek flavors and you want to take them into another direction.

You love cous cous (I’m with you sister…or brother).

You need a light refreshing side to serve with your heavy meal (then again you can totally eat this as a meal…my husband is actually sitting next to me on the couch eating left overs out of a Tupperware for dinner right now…)

And because it tastes awesome…

Here is the recipe:

5.0 from 1 reviews

Mediterranean Cous Cous Salad

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Author: Annie Chesson

Serves: 5

Ingredients

• 1½ cups cous cous
• 3½ cups of water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• ½ teaspoon dried parsley
• ½ teaspoon dried basil
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon dijon mustard
• ½ thinly sliced red onion
• 1 cucumber
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• ⅔ cup Feta cheese crumbles
• 2 pinches cayenne pepper
• ¼ teaspoon cumin

Instructions

1. Bring 3½ cups of water to a boil with 1 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoons of olive oil
2. When the water is boiling, add your cous cous, stir until all the cous cous is under water, cover with a lid, and remove from the heat
3. Let the cous cous sit for 10-12 minutes
4. Remove lid and fluff with a fork
5. While the cous cous is cooking, slice the cucumber, red onion, and crumble the feta cheese
6. In a bowl, combine a lot of ice and cold water. Place the sliced red onions in the heavily iced water for 5-10 minutes to remove some of the sharpness
7. After they have been sitting in ice water for the proper amount of time, remove the onions and let the drain on a few layers of paper towels
8. Set the veggies aside
9. For the dressing:
10. Whisk together your red wine vinegar, 8 tablespoons of olive oil, parsley, oregano, basil, dijon mustard, grated garlic, and a pinch of salt and pepper
11. Once the cous cous is cooked, transfer to a large salad bowl
12. Add the the veggies, feta cheese, and dressing
13. Toss together until everything is coated
14. Taste and add any seasoning you think the salad needs

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