Pearl Couscous Salad with Basil Pesto
Pearl couscous salad is the star of this dish with a fresh basil pesto. Tiny pearls cook on the stovetop in no time and then gets tossed with colorful vegetables, mozzarella cheese. A healthy salad or side dish that packs so much flavor!
It doesn’t get fresher and faster than making this delicious couscous salad. This vegetarian side dish celebrates the use of fresh and flavorful ingredients with each bite delivering a burst of flavor.
Couscous is such a underrated pantry item. The first time I tried pearl couscous was at an airport lounge. I liked the taste of it, but it lacked so much flavor. I love making couscous as a salad or side dish because it cooks up so quickly.
Couscous has a lovely nutty texture just like pasta. It’s difficult to mess up cooking couscous. It’s a wonderful solution when you’re needing a quick and light meal. The best part of pearl couscous is that it retains its shape after cooking and even while reheating, does not clump together.
What is Israeli Couscous and other ingredients?
Israeli couscous is also called pearl couscous. It’s a little different from the smaller grained couscous. This one is shaped of small round pearls made from durum wheat and semolina flour.
It cooks the same way as pasta and has very similar texture too. It can used to make pasta dishes, salads and soups. I like to toss the pesto while the couscous is still warm so that it absorbs all the flavors. I kept the other ingredients very simple, most of them store-bought like marinated artichokes, olives and sun-dried tomatoes. All these ingredients keep it dry and also longer.
I have used three cheeses – mascarpone, parmesan and mozzarella balls.
You can completely leave out mascarpone cheese or use sour cream or crème fraiche. It adds small amounts of creaminess that I love. I had mascarpone at home so that’s what I used.
You can use store-bought pesto or check out this recipe for my basil pistachio pesto!
Instead, mozzarella, you can easily use feta or goat cheese or even ricotta salata cheese. You can easily swap the choice of cheese. If you want to completely leave it cheese, then feel free to do so.
For nuts, I have used walnuts for a change. I would have added pine nuts if I was not out of them. Pistachios would also be great. They add great texture.
You can serve the salad straight away, but it can be prepared in advance as it stores very well covered in an airtight container for few days. Actually, it gives flavors time to mingle and makes it more flavorful.
Pearl Couscous Salad with Basil Pesto
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Couscous (uncooked) Israeli Pearl variety
- ¼ cup basil pesto
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 red pepper
- 1 tbsp mascarpone cheese
- ½ cup marinated roasted artichokes
- ¼ cup sundried tomatoes
- 1/3 cup marinated olives
- ½ cup mozzarella cheese
- 1 tbsp parmesan cheese
- ¼ cup walnuts
- 2 tbsp chopped basil
Instructions
- In a pot or pan, heat 1 tbsp oil. Once the oil is warm enough, sauté red bell pepper quickly keeping the crunchy texture. Just cook them slightly. Remove them.
- In the same pot or pan, add couscous and toast it for few seconds. Once the couscous is toasted add about 1 ¾ cup water and salt in it and bring it to a boil. Once it comes to full boil, decrease the heat and let it cook preferably covered with a lid until all the water is evaporated, and couscous is cooked. If you need to add more water, then please do.
- It takes 8 minutes approximately to cook couscous. Stir in 1 tbsp of mascarpone cheese. You can leave this out as it is very small quantity, but if you have it then please add it. You can substitute with sour cream or crème fraiche too instead of mascarpone cheese.
- In the same pot, mix toss pesto, and rest of the other ingredients like artichokes, olives, sun dried tomatoes, parmesan and mozzarella cheese and nuts.
- Garnish with some chopped basil leaves and more nuts if you wish.
- Serve it at room temperature.
Notes
- The leftovers store very well for 2-3 days in an air-tight container.
- I used pearled garlic and olive oil couscous from whole foods which has some seasoning packet. I used the seasoning too.
- If you are using plain couscous, then add ½ tsp garlic powder while boiling it.