Michael's Great Cous Cous Salad

My friend Michael gave me this recipe and until I tried this I wasn't a big fan of cous cous. This changed my opinion. As an optional extra of you want to extend the volume of the salad, you can add a small amount of diced tomatoes as well.

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• Salad

• 250  g couscous (packet in supermarket)
• 500  ml  chicken stock
• 2  tablespoons olive oil
• 1  small Spanish onion, finely chopped
• 1  garlic clove, crushed
• 1  large  fresh red  chili, seeds removed, finely sliced
• 75  g pistachios, shelled and roughly chopped
• 50  g currants
• 1⁄2  fine grated a lemon, rind of
• 1⁄2  finely grated an orange, rind of
• 1  quarter preserved lemon, washed well, use rind only, finely chopped
• 8  large mint leaves, finely chopped

• Dressing

• 6  tablespoons olive oil
• 3  tablespoons lemon juice
• 1  teaspoon salt
• 1  teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Directions

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in frying pan and cook onions, garlic and chilli over medium heat until soft (4 mins) . Add pistachios, currants, lemon and orange rind, preserved lemoon and mint and cook for another minute. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Put cous cous in large bowl. Bring stock to the boil and pour over cous cous, occasionally stirring with a fork so it doesn't stick together in lumps. When almost cool, fork in 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
3. When ready to serve combine all ingredients and fork through the dressing.