Couscous and Chickpea Salad

Couscous and Chickpea Salad

Last week we went through a crazy stressful week with travel and mad work hours involved. Those kinda nights call for salads. Not the salads that are so fancy it is almost like cooking a full meal, but the ones that hardly take any time to cook and you can just roughly chop or tear things into it and still make it taste DELISH. This Couscous and Chickpea Salad is one of those that are even perfect for meal prep. Just make it over the weekend and stock it in the fridge and it will be good as new. You can even add chicken to it or Mediterranean spices to it like sumac or za’atar to it to just add that bit of edge. Just ’cause.

This salad is sort of similar to tabbouleh, which is more herbs and less of the grain and veggies. I used sweet corn because I think it gives it a beautiful crunch and a natural sweetness and a general feeling of summer. Also the colour is just amazing – the yellow jumps right at you! It’s lemony and tangy, crunchy and soft, with slight heat from the pepper and saltiness from the cheese.

Couscous and Chickpea Salad

Serves 4 | Prep time : 15 min | Cook time : 5 min

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole-wheat couscous
• 1¼ cups very hot tap water
• 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup parmesan (or any vegan cheese, for a vegan version)
• 1/2 cup sweet corn, rinsed and boiled
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 cube veggie stock (or you can make fresh stock at home by boiling carrots, celery, mint and onion)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Optional Additions:

• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• ¼ cup fresh mint leaves, torn
• 1/4 cup parsley

In a large bowl, combine the couscous and water, cover tightly with plastic wrap to allow the steam to stay inside and let stand until the water is absorbed and the couscous is tender, about 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

Add the boiled chickpeas, sweet corn, tomatoes, mint, lemon juice, oil, salt, pepper and grated parmesan (or any hard cheese of your choice) to the bowl and toss.

Serve warm.