Chef Silvia Dunnirvine and Anne Buckley present Garden in the Kitchen. In Episode 21, learn how to make Mediterranean Couscous Salad.
To see this and other recipes, visit Silvia’s blog at https://gardeninthekitchen.com
Mediterranean Couscous Salad
Ingredients
1 cup pearl couscous (uncooked)
1 cup cherry tomatoes quartered
1 cup cucumber cubed
1/2 cup olives
5 oz feta cheese
1/2 red onion chopped
fresh parsley or cilantro
Dressing
1/3 cup olive oil
1 lemon juice
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste
Hello and welcome to Garden in the kitchen I’m Anne Buckley and I’m here with Chef Sylvia and we are proud to present our 21st episode of Garden in the kitchen with Holliston Hub um as you may have heard we were awarded second place in the northeastern Community
Media Awards we um took second place in the instructional and training category and we’re extremely proud of this Accolade so thank you to everybody for tuning in and thank you to everybody for being here today with us so Sylvia can you explain to us what we’re going to be
Cooking this this time absolutely um so today we’re making a Mediterranean cusu salad um I believe we made a quino salad before um there is also a chickpea salad and now we’re going to make the couscous salad I think that a lot of times we kind of get stuck creating the same
Recipes over and over and I truly believe that each ingredient has uh an abundance of different nutrients to offer so in my kitchen and on my website certainly I like to uh be able to to introduce a wide variety of different foods and ingredients and show people
How to cook and uh how easy it is to um add to your diet your cooking your dinner and uh the salad is just such an easy way to add a variety of vegetables and nutrients in one bowl and you add a protein and you’re good to
Go fantastic it looks wonderful I love all the colors and of course as we go you’ll tell us where to find the recipes on your website and how to follow you on social media yes absolutely so this recipe the Mediterranean cous C recipe you can find on my website gardenin
Kitchen.com it’s also uh available on all social channels uh Facebook Instagram Pinterest and Tik Tok now I try good for you I’m trying um so um I very very popular Kino salad uh it’s a very popular recipe on the site did really well and uh the idea here is
To show how we can create the same idea but using something else in this time it’s couscous which I feel like not a lot of people uh use couscous you know in their cooking yes and it’s easy right absolutely um so here we have uh I I
Cooked one cup of couscous so it’s I pre-cooked to make it easier but it’s you know you follow the package instructions they’re usually just boiling you can add a little oil or butter and seasoning I added a little bit of oregano here um and then you drain it set
Aside and now we’re going to chop up our veggies and we’ll do this live um we have a variety of veggies here as you can see Tomatoes cucumber umbers olives red onions and uh we create the dressing as well um about the vegetables uh you can you can use the same exact
Vegetables that we have here but you can also use peppers and zucchini and what uh seasonal vegetables things that you have in hand so it’s a very flexible recipe this said I’m going to start chopping things up okay okay so we can get it going um I I like this tiny
Cucumbers because it’s just easier to cut but obviously fulls size cucumber English cucumber or any sort of cucumber will work it’s just easier to chop up into small pieces and that’s what you want like uniform um size you know pieces so um I have two cucumbers here the recipe does call for
One cup of cucumbers and so you know just about two cucumbers or three more or less if you want to so you can pack it out as much or as little as you like really absolutely yeah like I said it’s a very very flexible recipe so we’ll just go ahead
And add everything to the bowl of you know the bowl with with the couscous and um you know like I mentioned if you don’t like couscous you could use Kino you can also use a can of chickpeas or two cans of chickpeas I’ve I’ve also uh tried that
Recipe it’s just lovely uh chickpeas has a lot of protein um so it’s it’s a great alternative and you know you can get a can canned chickpeas and that’s totally fine um I use it all the time and then another alternative that perhaps kids would like it the most it’s pasta you
Could just add some pasta instead of couscous and that’s your traditional pasta salad of course so is there a certain type of couscous that you’ve used here uh these are the I believe they’re called The Pearl couscous yes in mine as you can see it’s a little bit on
A yellow side and that’s because mine is seasoned with turmeric okay yes so it’s just it’s just it won’t uh affect anything of the recipe if you get the regular cuscus Pearl cuscus or unseasoned cuscus it’s all absolutely fine it’s just um you know I picked up a
A can of not can sorry like a container of turmeric seasoned couscous that’s and it looks colorful as well it’s absolutely add another dimension to the dish and I feel like I I don’t use enough turmeric in my cooking and turmeric is super um super healthy and anti-inflammatory I think we’ve talked
About it here before in a different benefits yeah so why not absolutely okay so we we have cucumbers to tomatoes and I will add some olives now a lot of people I mean so I wouldn’t say a lot of people but some people don’t like olives
It’s fine it’s it’s one of those things you don’t if you don’t enjoy it don’t add to your recipe but um the typical Mediterranean recipe will almost always include olives absolutely and feta so we’re going for the typical for the original the traditional know I
Should say here but uh of course if you guys at home don’t really like the taste of Olives that’s fine you don’t have to add it um so we’re going for about half a cup of olives and I’m just slicing them in half so everything kind of looks
The same of course it’s more for looks but you can add it you know as a whole too it’s fine mhm okay we’ll add that in the color combination is just perfect I know you love a colorful dish I do I really do so next we’re adding um a half of a
Red onion now when I say half I’m probably that’s huge this is a huge Red Onion so we’re now going to use a half of this onion let me move the fet cheese out of the way we’re just going to use maybe a quarter of it or less
Um and then what we want to do is just slice it thinly Um so you use your own preferences and you use just your eye to see what it needs really to go into the dish yes absolutely make it colorful make it fun and definitely you know the different ingredients will add different textures and flavors so that’s what I kind of you
Know I go for in my dishes so I’m going to give extra chopping here because this is a very big Red Onion um so we’ve got little slices now little slices yes so we’ll add that in and so what’s left here um we’ve got the the couscous we have the cherry tomatoes
Cucumbers olives Red Onion uh now we’ll add feta cheese and some some herbs uh parsley cilantro those are my favorite you you could add Dill it’s nice fresh flavor too even basil would be lovely in here um so I have the recipe calls for about
5 oz of feta cheese and I think that’s just about 5 oz Y correct so that’s about 5 oz good of feta cheese and you can buy the pre can I give you this we can you can buy the you know the shredded the crumbled feta cheese that’s easy too uh
I have a block so I’m just going to chop this up and I just I just love feta cheese do you like fet chees I do like Feta cheese yes absolutely I struggle to find anything that you prepare that I don’t enjoy silia you’re easy to cook I am easy to
Cook for I’m always grateful if somebody else takes over the cooking chores it is nice isn’t it I have to say I do enjoy that myself okay so we have a lot of feta cheese in that’s just great um just add everything to a big big bowl
Nice big bowl and and this recipe you you know I have the measurements here it says um it serves about six people so now we’re talking about like a smaller portion maybe probably four full portions here but if if you’re making this for like a a bunch of people a
Crowd a party potlock picnic or you know summer barbecue I think it would be amazing so you can double and triple um in fact it’s one of the new um features on my website you can click on um it’s not printed in here but it’s you can
Click on a recipe times two or times three oh Brant three and they will multiply the ingredients and adjust accordingly so it’s nice if you’re now looking to make this recipe for you know 12 people you just click on that option of times two and it will automatically
Multiply the ingredients for you you can print that list go shopping and you’re good to go excellent awesome I like that feature so just a quick clean up here because be using that feature yes it’s it’s very handy I tried to um I recently
Uh had a very big update on my site like upgrade update where at a bunch of different things that either people ask me for or I you know I felt that it needed yes just to kind of make life easier for everyone I understand everybody is busy and and it’s my job to
Just make it easier and fun and delicious so just a quick clean up here our salad looks beautiful colorful I’ve got all of the ingredients in uh except for the parsley we have actually cilantro cilantro cilantro because it’s my favorite uh it it’s asking for just
Fresh parsley of cilantro so use as much as or as little as you like so I’m just going to go with you know just a nice handful as always I trim the ends off get rid of it right away um then I like to fold the rest of it U we’ve done this
Before we have yes it’s one of my tricks it fold it just to make it easy and then you just chop away and then you in go easy as you get closer to your fingers um and then you know just give it some extra chopping I love the smell of fresh
Cilantro fresh herbs in general aren’t they so lovely they are absolutely what’s your favorite herb um cook with a lot oregano I oregano as you would say um I use a lot yes yeah that’s probably my go-to do you do you sometimes get fresh oregano yes I do
Enjoy that so it is and it’s so fragrant as well super fragrant in the summer time it’s just nice to make pizza and then just add some fresh oregano it’s just lovely okay so this is all our cilantro lots of colors lots of texture and flavor and this is what we’re
Looking for okay so the salad is kind of ready to go yes we’re going to work on the dressing Dr um we have a bit of a mess here but that’s totally fine we’re just chopping away for the dressing we’re going to use some olive oil so the recipe calls for about a
Third of a cup um sometimes I like to make extra and then just keep it in the fridge for future salads how long will it cap for so uh it’s I try to use within two weeks okay in the fridge but then you want to keep it in a jar y um
You know with a top like a tight with a tight lid mhm right now we’re just making enough for this salad so we’ve got olive oil we’re going to add juice from one lemon so I’ve got the lemon here going to squeeze that juice right in
There I you know I love making my own dressing I think it’s just so fresh m you know and um sometimes I add garlic to this one um yeah not this time I don’t think it calls for garlic nope so we’ve got this beautiful fresh juice
Going there there you go flip it the other side and this juicer is getting absolutely everything out of there everything that’s that was quite a small lemon yes and it keeps the um the seeds in too so it doesn’t very good fall in there so it’s a nice little handy
Tool and I think you were mentioning in the last episode that you started to note your tools online yes exactly yeah it’s it’s definitely I’m glad you mentioned um all of my recipes especially like the last three months and then going forward each recipe will
Have a block where I link all of the tools that you need to make the recipe and I I try for to link the exact tools that I use because that’s the ones that I use use and uh they’re good and I recommend it uh sometimes I will
Recommend a an alternative I use a lot of LA crus and I understand it’s like an investment so a lot of times I will link the exact La crus that I have but then I’ll link a an alternative that’s you know um it’s better budget friendly but
Also a super good so I make sure I do my research and I offer something that’s really high quality as well so um very good now we’re going to add some salt and pepper to our dressing here so there’s no salt and pepper here so all of the seasoning is here in the
Dressing so you can be a little bit more generous about this um and then the next ingredient is well two ingredients left is one teaspoon of Deon mustard and we have your favorite oregano okay so excellent um Deon Master let’s I like that everything is just going straight into the um yes Salad
Server the dressing server okay I’m going to let you try open this while I’ll wrestle with this wrestle with that yes okay we’ve got oregano I would love to have some fresh oregano right now but it’s not the season so we’re just going to go with this dried
Oregano it still smells Wonder can you I can smell it as soon as it comes out so so good so we’ll add just a little one teaspoon of Deon master I feel like the Deon Master adds great flavor to the dressing so that’s in here’s our beautiful dressing we’re
Just going to stir everything in our jar and like I said I only made um the exact amount for the salad for this recipe but usually if I’m doing this I’ll double or triple the recipe and I’ll keep it in a jar for like future future salads it looks like a nice thick
Dressing as well often when you make your own they can be quite oily and quite oily and also you don’t really know what the ingredients yes um a lot of times unfortunately it’s inexpensive oils they aren’t so good for us or too much salt or preservatives you know so
AB absolutely I just try to like you know as part of clean eating clean eating habits it’s to make your own dressing and it’s just so easy very simple yeah so okay it’s done now we’re going to put everything together you ready in I am okay let’s um let’s move
This out of the way can I thank you okay just a little clean up beautiful that’s a very quick clean up for a a meal I would be satisfied with that if that was in my home right it’s easy very easy so easy okay so in goes the dressing that’s a good
Amount yes it is a good amount just enough you know not too dry not too much not over helming just the right amount so now we mix everything I think I’m just going to use this spoon and it all comes together nice and easy right wonderful and and like I said it’s just
Such a versatile recipe you can use whichever veggies you want sometimes you even add some fruit like some Peach slices okay and things to that nature you know and um and then you can change the couscous for quinoa for chickpea or even pasta M so very easy to to change and make sure
Everyone in your family like it m okay so here is our beautiful Mediterranean cousu salad and now it’s time to try it can’t wait awesome okay okay some fetas some Tomatoes make sure you’ve got olives wonderful yes M it smells so good I think the um
The citrusy from the lemon yes um it’s just such a good combination they’ve got the citrus from the lemon the olive the Deon mas and then the fresh herbs yes it’s just very fragrant actually and hopefully delicious perfect let’s try it let’s try thank you syia
M so lovely it is lovely the taste of Summer very good I’m ready for this exactly that’s what we need yes it’s a light meal summery um springish mhm and to make a complete meal all you have to add is perhaps a chicken breast maybe a grilled chicken a steak maybe some
Shrimp would be delicious with this dish so and that’s your complete meal get your veggies and carbs and then a protein on top and it’s wonderful thank you well thank you for sharing this with us um and we hope that all the viewers will enjoy this recipe and come back and
See us again next time awesome thank you so much for watching I hope you enjoyed this recipe and I will see you next Time Oh