Roasted Couscous and Cranberry Salad With Red Pepper Dressing

a good hit of grains. taken from 'Yeah, That Vegan Shit' and 'Fat free Vegan Kitchen'

• Ready In: 24 hrs 45 mins
• Serves: 10

Ingredients

• Salad

• 500  g couscous
• 8  asparagus spears
• 1  red pepper, roasted
• 1 -1 1⁄2 cup walnuts, toasted
• 3  cups dried cranberries

• Dressing

• 1  red bell pepper
• 1⁄3 cup  balsamic vinegar
• 1⁄4 cup white wine vinegar or 1⁄4 cup cider vinegar
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 1  tablespoon basil
• 1  teaspoon rosemary
• 1  teaspoon sugar

Directions

1. The Night before: Place whole bell pepper under preheated broiler; broil under high heat until charred on all sides, turning frequently with tongs. Carefully remove from oven with tongs; place in a paper bag for 15 minutes to steam skin. Carefully remove pepper from bag; remove seeds and ribs. Strip off skin; slice pepper into strips.
2. In blender or food processor container, place bell pepper, vinegars, garlic, basil, rosemary and sugar. Cover and process until well blended and nearly smooth.
3. Whip up a batch of couscous according to the directions on the box or the bag.
4. In the meantime, roast the asparagus for a few minutes in your broiler, with a little bit of olive oil. You can probably get away with roasting the red pepper at the same time, you'll probably just need to remove the asparagus before the red pepper.
5. Post-roasting, dice up the red pepper into small pieces and cut up the asparagus into small chunks as well.
6. Toss both over the couscous and mix.
7. Crumble up your walnuts a little bit and then toast them. Toss those babies into the mix along with your dried cranberries and mix.
8. Add the roasted red pepper dressing to taste and refrigerate for a couple hours to again let the flavors tango. Serve at room temperature.