Turkish-Ish Salad

Submitted by COOKGIRl

"From www.gourmet.gr. I played around a bit with this one. Use regular couscous if you cannot find Israeli couscous. Use a good quality olive oil."

 

• Ready In: 25mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 6 ounces israeli couscous
• 1⁄2 cup spring onion, thinly sliced
• 1⁄2 persian cucumber (can leave unpeeled if you prefer)
• 3 small ripe roma tomatoes, diced small
• 2 ounces raisins
• 2 tablespoons Italian parsley, freshly chopped
• 2 tablespoons of fresh mint, chopped
• salt
• fresh ground black pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon sumaq, to taste
• 1 lemon, juice of
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

directions

1. Cook the couscous according to package directions. Drain and set aside to cool.
2. In a salad bowl combine the spring onions, cucumber, tomatoes and raisins with the cooked couscous along with the herbs. Pour over the lemon juice and olive oil. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
3. Toss ingredients together lightly. Cover and chill until required.

Reviews

[FrenchBunny]

This was such a great salad. We both loved it. I first saw this kind of couscous in a restaurant and didn't know what it was so I asked the Chef. I searched everywhere and couldn't find it. But finally I found it and was so excited. In this salad I just used regular cucumbers because the English cucumbers were like 3.00 and I wasn't paying that and those are the only 2 cucumbers you get here. For the tomatoes I used Campari tomatoes, they have so much flavor. Tomatoes are just tastless here but those Campari ones are so good and bursting with flavor. Very quick to put this salad together. Couscous really didn't take that long to cook. Got it all ready in the morning and kept in fridge till lunch time. Such a yummy flavor and very colorful. Will be making this one again many times. Thanks for sharing this recipe Cookgirl... We loved it.

 

[Chef Edlear]

I loved this salad. This went together rather quickly once the couscous was cooked. I used regular ol' cucumbers, scrubbed and stripe-peeled the skins, cut out the seeds and cubed the flesh . I used currants instead of the raisins because I like them. I dry my own sumac in the fall, so I used that. It has a nice strong flavor, so I cut the quantity of lemon juice back some, and as an afterthought, added in a bit of za'atar blend. The mint is up early this year, so I was able to pick it out of the yard. This salad kept really well, I was just as happy with the flavor of it the following day - not that there was much of it left. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe Cookgirl! made for spring 2010 PAC.

 

[magpie diner]

Nice salad! Love all the flavours together, it felt like a little bowl of summer, which is pretty nice in February. I didn't have sumaq, read somewhere that lemon rind and a little more salt is a good sub, which is what I did. I also had to use dried mint - otherwise, as is. The only thing I would do differently next time is not follow the package directions on the couscous so closely - it called for sauteeing the couscous in oil before adding boiling water - which was fine, but the amount of oil was too much...especially when you're adding a salad dressing to it later on. Anyway, Yum!! made for Veg*n Swap Feb10.

 

[Dr. Jenny]

This is a light, fresh tasting salad that we enjoyed for lunch today. I used a little less than half of an English cuke (could not find Persian) and a mixture of Roma and cherry tomatoes (what I had on hand). We omitted the raisins per personal preference. This was a taste of summer in March. Thanks! Made for March 2013 NA/ME tag.

 

[UmmBinat]

Delicious! To be gluten free I used quinoa and I think my proportion to the vegetables was less so it was even more salad like. I used baby cucumbers, Sun-maid Thompson raisins, sea salt, to taste, freshly squeezed lemon juice, unrefined extra virgin olive oil, plus the rest. I would make this again the same way! Made for NA*ME Tag! Come play!!