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This salad works really well with any grilled meat or chicken dish or even BBQ’d sausages. I like putting in a large selection of roasted, blanched and raw vegetables. Here I used Israeli couscous but at other times Ebly wheat or pearl barley.
Ingredients (no need to be exact here)
Israeli couscous, Ebly wheat or pearl barley, cooked
A selection of vegetables cut into even sized cubes and tossed in a little olive oil and roasted – eg pumpkin, kumara, courgette, aubergine, red and/or yellow peppers
Other vegetables, raw or blanched eg cherry tomatoes, snow peas, fresh corn kernels, sliced beans, peas
1 red onion, finely chopped or spring onions, finely sliced
3-4 sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
Preserved lemon, flesh removed and rind cut into small pieces
Handful of toasted cumin seeds
Bunch of coriander, finely chopped
Dressing
Extra virgin olive oil
Freshly squeezed lemon juice
Pomegranate molasses or pomegranate dressing
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp each of ground cumin and ginger
1 chili finely chopped or pinch of chili flakes or cayenne pepper (optional)
¼-½ tsp sweet smoked paprika
Salt and pepper
Make the dressing first. Mix all ingredients and taste. It needs to be quite flavoursome and well-seasoned as the couscous, Ebly or barley will absorb it so it doesn’t seem strong at all.
Cook the couscous, drain and while its warm mix in at least half the dressing.
Gently mix in all the vegetables, cumin seeds, sundried tomatoes, preserved lemon and the rest of the dressing. Mix in the coriander last.
Serve on a large platter or in a large bowl.