Israeli Couscous Salad

Israeli couscous salad is packed with vegetables and cooked pearl couscous and chickpeas. With simple lemon dressing and loads of fresh herbs, this salad is great for a light lunch, picnics, and potlucks on any day.
Ingredients
Couscous-
1 cup pearl couscous
¼ cup cooked chickpeas (canned chickpeas works too)
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tablespoons onion finely chopped
1 ½ tablespoons EVOO
1 ½ cups water or stock use vegetable stock for the vegetarian option
For Salad-
8 oz cherry tomatoes halved
2 small cucumbers diced
¼ red onion diced
1 cup baby spinach finely sliced
½ cup chopped parsley or cilantro, chopped
½ cup fresh mint chopped
3 stalks of green onions chopped fine
1 jalapenos chopped fine (reduce it to half if you don’t want too spicy and remove seeds)
For Lemon Salad Dressing-
⅓ cups EVOO use best quality
1 lemon zest
1 lemon juice freshly squeezed
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
In a large pot, heat EVOO. Sauté minced garlic and onions for 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
Once onions begin to sweat, add in pearl couscous.
Pour water or stock (use vegetable stock for the vegetarian option), and stir well.
When water begins to boil, reduce heat to medium-low. Cover the pot with the lid and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes.
Open the lid, and fluff it with a fork gently. Keep it aside to cool completely.
While couscous cools, make salad dressing. Into a jar, add EVOO, lemon zest, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper. Shake well.
Into a large salad bowl, add cooked couscous. Add in the rest of the salad ingredients - halved cherry tomatoes, chopped cucumbers, red onions, roughly chopped baby spinach, cooked (or canned) chickpeas, chopped fresh herbs (cilantro or parsley and fresh mint), chopped green onions, chopped jalapenos (leave the seeds on if you like it hot).
Pour salad dressing over it. Gently toss the salad.
Rest for a while at room temperature, and serve immediately.
DETAILED RECIPE LINK: www.currytrail.in/israeli-cou...

[@MourirSarin]

Cannot wait to try it. It looks lovely.

[@JyothiRajesh]

glad to hear you loved the recipe