Lemony Arugula Salad with Couscous, Cucumbers, and Feta
We particularly love pearl (often labeled Israeli couscous) for this salad. It cooks quickly and gives the salad enough substance to stand on the plate by itself. You could swap the couscous for pasta, quinoa, or other cooked grains like barley or wheat berries.
We particularly love pearl (often labeled Israeli couscous) for this salad. It cooks quickly and gives the salad enough substance to stand on the plate by itself. You could swap the couscous for pasta, quinoa, or other cooked grains like barley or wheat berries.
- 1/2 teaspoon honey
- sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 cups dried pearl (israeli) couscous (about 3 cups cook
- 3 ounces baby arugula or tender salad greens about 4 cups
- 1/2 hothouse (seedless) cucumber chopped
- 2 ounces feta cheese crumbled, about 1/2 cup
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice about 1/2 large lemon
- 4 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon minced preserved lemon optional
- 1 teaspoon dried basil or a handful chopped fresh basil leave optional
- Carbohydrate 1.93052274723634 g
- Cholesterol 12.6155377795 mg
- Fat 9.46638925784 g
- Fiber 0.04663281321309 g
- Protein 2.05902033502152 g
- Saturated Fat 3.009175861263 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (54g)
- Sodium 197.209370148021 mg
- Sugar 1.88388993402325 g
- Trans Fat 0.33342332936 g
- Calories 99 calories
Step-by-step
- Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add couscous and cook until tender, 8-10 minutes. Drain then add to a large bowl.
- Meanwhile, make the dressing. Whisk lemon juice, olive oil, honey, preserved lemon and basil together until it looks thick and blended. Season to taste with salt and fresh ground black pepper (we add a generous pinch of each).
- Toss the cooked and drained couscous with the dressing then set aside for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cooled slightly. Finish the salad by adding the arugula, cucumbers and feta. Toss well then serve.
Standard green salads rely entirely on raw vegetables for crunch, often turning watery and limp within minutes of dressing. Pearl couscous offers a sturdier foundation, yielding a chewy texture that absorbs vinaigrette without dissolving into mush. Controlling moisture remains critical when combining watery cucumbers with delicate greens like arugula. Salting the chopped cucumbers and letting them drain in a colander for 15 minutes prevents excess water from diluting the lemon and olive oil emulsion. Boiling the pasta-like couscous in a generous three-quart saucepan of salted water ensures the grains expand evenly without sticking together. Draining the hot grains thoroughly in a fine-mesh strainer removes surface starch that otherwise creates a gummy mouthfeel. Tossing the warm couscous with the dressing immediately allows the starch granules to absorb the liquids fully. Letting this mixture sit for five minutes brings the temperature down so the tender arugula greens do not wilt prematurely from residual heat. Folding in the crumbled feta cheese at the very end preserves distinct pockets of creamy texture rather than letting it smear into a paste. Preserved lemon adds a pungent salinity that cuts through the richness of the olive oil. Swapping the pearl couscous for quinoa requires reducing the liquid ratio to two parts water for one part grain to prevent waterlogging.
