Spiced Couscous Salad
Quick couscous salad with bell peppers, sweetcorn, and a tomato-curry-soy dressing rubbed through by hand. Side dish or make-ahead lunch. Translated from anjatrine on chefkoch.de.
A quick, well-seasoned couscous salad. Side dish for grilled or pan-fried meat, packed lunch, fridge mainstay for the day you don’t want to think about cooking. The dressing does the work: tomato paste, red curry paste, rice vinegar, oil, soy sauce. Hands are the right tool for rubbing it through the grains.
One note from the original worth keeping: a lot of supermarket red curry pastes contain shrimp paste. Check the label if it matters to you, or substitute extra tomato paste.
From anjatrine on chefkoch.de. Translated; quantities unchanged.
Ingredients
For 4 portions.
- 250 g couscous
- 250 ml vegetable stock or broth
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 1 tin sweetcorn
- 4 spring onions
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 3 tbsp olive or sunflower oil
- 1 tbsp red curry paste (vegan, if it matters — see note)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- Salt and pepper
- Chili powder
- Cumin
- A pinch of sugar
- Flat-leaf parsley
- Chives, or the green tops of the spring onions
Method
- Bring the stock to a boil. Pour over the couscous and leave to swell for 10 minutes. (Check your couscous packet — different brands want different liquid ratios; add a splash more if it looks dry after standing.)
- Meanwhile, wash and finely chop the vegetables and herbs.
- Stir the tomato paste, curry paste, rice vinegar, oil, and soy sauce through the couscous. Hands are easiest here — they break up clumps and coat the grains evenly.
- Fold in the chopped peppers, corn, and spring onions. Season with salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, and a pinch of sugar. Taste and adjust.
- Finish with chopped parsley and the chives or spring-onion greens.
Notes
Curry paste. Many Thai-style red curry pastes contain shrimp paste, even ones that look vegetarian on the front of the jar. If that matters, read the ingredients list or just use extra tomato paste — the salad still works.
Make-ahead. Holds well in the fridge for two or three days. The flavour deepens on the second day; you may want to wake it up with a fresh squeeze of lemon or splash of vinegar before serving cold.
Original: anjatrine on chefkoch.de.