Couscous Salad with Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Feta

This Couscous Salad is packed with fresh herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, feta and a quick red wine vinaigrette dressing. Taking about 15 minutes to make, this dish makes a light lunch of dinner and can be perfect to bring to your next bbq or picnic.

If there is one salad I could eat everyday of my life, this is it. This Couscous Salad is one I've been making for myself for about 10 years. It's nearly no-cook (though you do have to boil water to cook the couscous) and while it's best when it's made fresh, I love eating it for a quick remade lunch over a period of a few days.

The couscous in it is both light, yet filling and the freshness from the raw tomatoes and cucumbers makes it feel refreshing. Feta cheese and herbs are tossed in, along with a simply made red wine vinaigrette to punch of the flavor and bring the whole salad together. File this recipe under: simple but so delicious.

So let's get to making it! The text below offers some tips for making it, or you can scroll down to the bottom for the complete recipe.

Ingredients Needed and Substitutions

Here is a brief overview of the ingredients needed for this recipe. The full recipe with quantities is listed below this text in the recipe card. If substitutions are available for this recipe, they'll be listed here. If you don't see a substitution you are looking for, feel free to leave a comment below.

• couscous (for this recipe, use the smallest couscous, also known as moroccon couscous)
• european cucumber (if you can't get a European cucumber, use a regular cucumber but peel it and de-seed it)
• tomatoes
• kosher salt and pepper
• red wine vinegar (this can be swapped with an acid of your choice, not limited to white wine vinegar or lemon juice)
• olive oil
• fresh herbs (I recommend dill and parsley, but any of your favorite herbs, such as cilantro, will work here)
• feta

How to Cook the Couscous

To cook the couscous you should follow the tips on the package. But generally speaking, Moroccan couscous is cooked simply by stirring it into boiling salted water, and then removing it off the heat, and letting it sit covered for 5 minutes.

Open up the lid, and it should reveal fully cooked couscous. Fluff it with a fork to ensure nothing clumps together.

For this recipe, it'll need to cool a bit. If you try to make this salad with warm couscous, it will suck up all of the dressing, but not in a good way. So let the couscous cool to room temperature before mixing it in with the salad.

If you want to cool it quickly, one tip is to transfer the fluffed couscous to a shallow container so more steam and heat can escape faster.

Storage and Leftover Tips

This Couscous Salad is delicious on the day it is made, but it can be enjoyed the next day as well. It can be kept in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, but as the days go on, the acid starts to interact with the tomato and cause a slight bitter flavor.

Making the recipe? Be sure to leave a comment with a star review on your experience! Have a question? Leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can!

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