Scrambled Eggs, Cheese, and Avocado Tortilla Bowl Recipe
September 16, 2025
12 Minute Couscous Salad with Sun Dried Tomato and Feta Recipe
A 12 minute, no prepare dinner, big Couscous Salad with solar dried tomato, feta, rocket (arugula), herbs and the nutty tastiness of chickpeas. My shortcut-flavour tip is to make use of the oil from the solar dried tomato jar because the dressing – free flavour!
A very fast Couscous Salad
It is a 12 minute meal. It’s additionally a no prepare dinner meal. Which implies irrespective of how scorching, how drained and the way hangry you’re (no typo there), and even for those who’ve been cooking non cease all day since 7 am, as much as your elbows in batter and pasta sauces (🙋🏻♀️), you possibly can nonetheless muster up the vitality for a critically tasty bowl of deliciousness that requires minimal effort.
After all, that is excellent to function a facet as nicely. This is able to be very best served with Western meals however particularly Center Jap dishes comparable to:
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Chicken Shawarma
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Center Jap Lamb Koftas
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Chicken Doner Kebab Meat
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Lamb Shawarma
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Turkish Kebabs
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Moroccan Lamb Meatballs
However as a result of it’s acquired pops of fairly intense flavour due to the solar dried tomato and feta, it’s definitely worthy of being a meal.
Solar Dried Tomato Dressing
Talking of solar dried tomato – that is your secret weapon for this Couscous Salad. You should definitely get the strips (to avoid wasting your self slippery oily chopping, yep, been there, accomplished that) and be completely certain to get solar dried tomato in oil, not the dry vac packed model, as a result of all that oil is infused with tasty solar dried tomato flavour and that’s what I take advantage of to decorate the salad.
There’s something very satisfying about tipping the complete jar of solar dried tomatoes, oil and all, over the salad. Draining oil is messy enterprise!
I add chickpeas for texture and in addition nuttiness which suggests I don’t really feel the necessity to throw in a handful of nuts, although that definitely wouldn’t damage.
You’ll additionally be stunned how a lot rocket (arugula) is on this. It appears like an unlimited quantity till you hack away at it – I like to cut it very roughly so it tosses via higher.
It additionally means you possibly can eat this with a spoon. In a bowl. On the sofa. By no means having to take your eyes off the TV as you scoop up mouthful after mouthful, binge watching Actual Housewives, The Kardashians, Undertaking Runway or different such extremely mental present.
Each time they occur to be on after I flip the TV on, it’s like a prepare wreck and I can’t look away. And I can really feel my mind cells popping with each passing minute… 🤣 – Johnsat x
MORE SUMMER SALADS to take to gatherings
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Italian Pasta Salad
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Coleslaw
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Potato Salad and Lemon Potato Salad
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Pearl Couscous Salad <– private fave!
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Wild Rice Salad <– reader fave!
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12 Minute Solar Dried Tomato Couscous Salad
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Browse all Pasta Salads and Rice Salad
Couscous Salad
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups dried couscous (Note 1)
- 1 1/4 cups / 315 ml boiled water
- 1 tsp vegetable stock powder (or 1 cube crumbled) (Note 2)
- 1 garlic clove , minced
- 1 tsp coriander powder (or cumin – I interchange)
- 400 g / 14 oz chickpeas (1 can) , drained
- 1/2 cup coriander , finely chopped
- 1/2 cup parsley , finely chopped (or mint)
- 1 red onion , chopped
- 220 g / 7 oz jar sun dried tomato strips in OIL (Note 3)
- 120 g / 4 oz rocket / arugula lettuce , chopped into 5 cm / 2″ pieces
- Zest of 1 large lemon
- 5 tbsp fresh lemon juice (2 large lemons)
- 1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 60 g / 2 oz feta , crumbled
- Salt and pepper , to taste
Instructions
- Place chickpeas, couscous, vegetable stock powder, coriander and garlic in a large bowl. Pour over hot water, shake to level out couscous (chickpeas should mostly settle on top). Cover with plate or cling wrap, set aside for 5 minutes.
- Fluff couscous with fork. Cool a bit.
- Add coriander, parsley, onion, sun dried tomatoes (including all oil), rocket, lemon juice and black pepper. Sprinkle zest across surface. Toss well to combine.
- Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
- Transfer to serving bowl, sprinkle with feta. Serve.
Notes
1. Couscous are tiny grains the size of cracked pepper. They are made from wheat – it’s essential teeny pasta. Because it’s so small, you just need to soak it. You can substitute with quinoa, barley or other grains – cook as required for those grains.
If you want to make this with Israeli or Pearl Couscous which are larger beads of couscous, cook per the packet (it needs to be boiled) then proceed wth the recipe but skip the soaking in boiled water.
2. Using stock powder or a crumbled bouillon cube goes a long way to add flavour to your couscous. Stock powder is basically bouillon cubes in powder form. 1 tsp = 1 cube. I like to use vegetable but chicken is also great. I use Vegeta. (PS Great to have on hand – of recipe calls for broth, just dissolve in hot water, 1 – 1 1/2 tsp per cup. Much more economical than buying liquid broth).
The alternative is to use boiled vegetable or chicken broth instead of water. Salt is a last resort – if you use salt, I would add 1/2 tsp cumin powder, 1/4 tsp each onion and garlic powder which will add more layers of flavour.
3. This recipe uses the oil in the sun dried tomato jar as the dressing. If you only have the sun dried tomatoes without oil, just drizzle olive oil over the salad – I think you’ll need about 1/3 cup (80ml), maybe a bit more. There’s far less than this in a jar of sun dried tomatoes but because the tomatoes themselves are soaked in the oil, it feels like there’s more!
4. 12 MINUTE COUSCOUS SALAD goes down like this: Get the couscous soaking, then start on the chopping. Because there’s no separate dressing to make and assuming reasonable chopping skills, I bet you can get this on the table in 12 minutes!
5. STORAGE / MAKE AHEAD: Even dressed, this keeps well for 2 days or so because it’s not leafy or weighed down with an oily dressing. To make ahead fresh, just place all the ingredients in a bowl except the sun dried tomato and lemon juice. Then add them just before serving and toss!
6. Nutrition per serving, assuming 10 servings.
Did You Make This Recipe?
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