I made this yummy and rather festive looking salad over my recent (glorious) summer holiday in Ohope. It would have been gorgeous on the dinner table on Christmas Day – check out those colours! I actually wanted to make this dish using Israeli couscous but we couldn’t find it anywhere! It didn’t matter a bit, regular couscous worked super well and I’ll definitely be making this again. Bonus too, as well as being delicious this salad was super easy to prepare.
Ingredients (serves 6 as a side dish)
1.5 cups couscous
1.5 cups boiling hot water (or chicken stock – I usually use stock to make couscous, I find it adds more flavour)
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 pomegranate
1/4 cup pinenuts, toasted (dry fry these in a frying pan)
Herby feta
200g packet of feta (you need the soft kind, like Ornelle or Bouton d’Or)
2 tablespoons small handful fresh mint, chopped (reserve some extra for garnish if you like)
2 tablespoons handful fresh basil, chopped (” “)
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped (” “)
50ml extra virgin olive oil
Dressing
Juice of one orange
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses
- Place couscous in a bowl, pour over boiling water and stir briefly. Cover the bowl and set aside for 10 minutes for couscous to steam and soften.
- Meanwhile, prepare the herby feta: Place all the herbs in a bowl (set some herbs aside for garnish if you like) and add the olive oil. Cut the feta into medium sized chunks and roll in the herb mix and place on a clean plate.
- De-seed the pomegranate onto a separate plate.
- Make the dressing: Either whack all the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk it all together, or, combine everything in a clean jar with a lid and shake it all about (you might as well do the hokey tokey while you are at it).
- By now your couscous will be ready, so fluff it up with a fork, season to taste and set aside to cool completely.
- Add the herby feta, pinenuts, pomegranate and spring onions to the couscous. Add the dressing and gently fold everything together. Check seasoning again.
*Apparently a bunch of clever ways you can de-seed a pomegranate. My method isn’t flash: I simply cut the bugger in half and scoop the seeds out onto a plate and pick any pith out before picking the seeds out to use. I do this over a plate in the first instance, rather than a plate, because you inevitably get bits of juice dribbling onto the plate. If you did this over the couscous, the juice would colour the couscous and it’s a tad unsightly. I’m just a bit fussy, clearly.
