Recipe: Everything Barbecued Veggie & Couscous Salad

Most people are a bit broke at the moment, so it’s good to have a salad like this in your back pocket. It uses half a box of couscous (a box costs around $2) and whatever you have in your fridge. For this salad, I barbecue the veggies to get that smokey flavour, and to enjoy the meditation of grilling sizzling and colourful vegetables.

You can just use an oven or frypan if you don’t have a barbecue. (Mine is this electric one and I love it! It’s super easy to use – just plug it in and off you go!) Here’s how to make this easy-peasy salad …

Everything BBQ’d Veggie Couscous Salad

Makes two large serves or four small/side serves

ingredients

1 cup of couscous – prepared as per packet instructions and fluffed up so it’s not too lumpy. I used SanRemo brand this time, which I normally don’t buy, and it was very lumpy. So know that. 
veggies – I had 1 zucchini, 1 red pepper, a small piece of pumpkin, 2 corn cobs … so I used those
1/2 cup of olive oil
4 green onions/spring onions, sliced
1 tablespoon of balsamic or red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon of chilli flakes (optional)
juice of one lemon
a few springs of fresh herbs of your choice
salt and pepper

Optional – other salad-y bits and bobs from your fridge/veggie drawer/condiment shelf/pantry

method

1. Slice the veggies up (not the corn, leave that whole – I cooked mine in the husk, but you can cook without also). Put the veggies into a big bowl and toss them in the olive oil. Shake any excess oil back into the bowl and set the oil aside – still in the big bowl – for dressing.
2. I have an electric barbecue, so I barbecue them on that at a medium-high temperature. You could pop them into a fry pan or onto an oven tray and into a hot oven (200/400 degrees). Sizzle your veggies until soft, turning often.
3. Slice up your cooked veggies (into smaller rustic pieces) – if using corn, slice the kernels from the cob – and pop this delicious mixture of bbq goodness into the bowl containing the leftover oil.
4. Add your vinegar, chilli flakes, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Mix well.
5. Poke about in the fridge/pantry and see if there’s anything else you can add – salad leaves? feta? olives? jalapeños? chickpeas? The choice is yours, pals!
6. Add the couscous and toss well. Add snipped-up fresh herbs and spring onions. Taste and season again, for good measure. I had some golden friend shallots in the pantry, so I added those.

Serve with sriracha and kewpie mayo – or condiments of your choice. This salad is great on its own or as a side to other things. You can also have it in wraps with humus or other dips.

Lemme know if you make this, champs! Or don’t. That’s fine too!

x Pip

PS: what have you been up to this week, pals? I’ve been studying (a unit on Classic Texts and one on science fiction texts) and doing a tiny bit of crafting and making comfort food for Max and I. (In case you don’t know, Max is my eldest son.) I’ve also been watching Hope Street in the evenings and the odd cheeky episode of Love Island Australia because I like the way it exposes toxic relationships and gets viewers talking about that kind of very common thing. I also like Sophie Monk’s very bendy accent. How about you?