Hello everyone, this couscous salad recipe with fresh mint is a fun summer salad. The mint makes the Tabouli salad really nice and fresh. The salad is perfect as a side dish for a barbecue or on the go! Tabouli is a salad from the Lebanese, Syrian and Moroccan cuisine. In North African and also Arab countries, Couscous or Bulgur is a popular choice. We ate our first Tabouli in France over 30 years ago and since then, this delicious salad has been one of our favorites in the summertime! The recipe is simple, and the salad is super quick to prepare.
Delicious quick and easy couscous salad recipe Classic Tabouli
I always prefer preparing the salad with couscous rather than with bulgur. Couscous is a fine semolina made from durum wheat, while bulgur is coarser, tastes nutty and is made from durum wheat grains. You can buy couscous semolina in almost every supermarket. Summer couscous salad recipe with red and yellow bell pepper, cucumber, and mint. Couscous is actually always pre-cooked and sold as a dried instant product. The durum wheat semolina then just needs to swell in hot water for a few minutes. I like to let it swell in salted water or in hot vegetable broth. This way it tastes a bit more seasoned later on. This Tabouli recipe goes very well with grilled meat or fish.
Light and fresh Mediterranean couscous salad with tomato and cucumber
Tabouli is only one of many ways to spell the delicious oriental salad. It is also known as Taboulé, Tabbuleh, Tabouleh or Tabbouleh. In Arab it is pronounced “Tabbüla”.
Summer salad with couscous, bell peppers, parsley and You can eat the salad as a side dish or as a main course. I love the Tabouli as a light lunch in summer. It gives me a good, vacation-like feeling instantly, also it´s perfect if you’re short on time. My son Jens and my daughter Annika love this couscous salad and have always eaten it on our vacations in France since they were little children 30 years ago. In France, you could buy the salad in any supermarket as a ready-made Tabouli. My children still associate this delicious couscous salad with a beach vacation, since we always used to take it with us on our trips to the beautiful beaches of Frances. In our cooler bag, we would also always have had melon, salami and cheese. For us this was the perfect picnic and even now that my children have children on their own, they’re almost picking the same choice when going on trips with their children.
French Couscous with Mint and Parsley
It took me a few attempts many years ago but to the delight of my family I eventually started preparing the salad myself, and we have enjoyed it during summer a thousand times ever since. Quickly and easily, you can create a quick lunch with the couscous salad. I sometimes cut fresh chorizo into slices and fry them quickly in a pan and add them to the salad. Fried merguez also tastes very good with the oriental Tabouli. You can also fry some chicken breast, cut into small pieces, and serve it in or with the salad.
Couscous salad Recipe
Light couscous salad recipe with bell peppers, cucumber, mint, parsley, and tomato. Here I have a few tips for you! For example, how you can modify the couscous salad with different ingredients! I am often asked how long the couscous salad can be stored? In the refrigerator, it keeps well for 2 to 3 days. In order for the couscous not to become mushy, I fill it in a large, shallow bowl and
pour boiling water over it adding 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil and let it swell and loosen it up two or three times with a fork.
Instead of couscous, you can prepare this salad with bulgur, which is actually used in the original recipe for the salad. The bulgur is a bit coarser and tastes a bit nuttier, it takes a bit longer to cook.
The salad can also be perfectly complemented with other ingredients. For example
- Feta
- Pomegranate seeds
- Tuna fish
- Diced, roasted chicken breast
- Fried chorizo or merguez
I hope you enjoy reading, strolling through and trying out my cooking and baking
recipes!
Equipment
- 1 cutting board
- 1 large bowl
- 1 paring knife
- 1 knife
- 1 measuring cup
Ingredients
- 500 g couscous
- 1 bell pepper red
- 1 bell pepper yellow
- 1 cucumber cored
- 1 onion small
- 1 spring onions
- 3 tbsp Olive oil
- 60 ml orange juice (for the raisins to soak in)
- 2-3 lemons juice
- 100 g Raisins (to soak in orange juice)
- salt
- pepper
- 1-2 cl Vinegar, Preferably herb vinegar
- 1 small bunch parsley, freshly chopped
- 1/4 red chili pepper (not too spicy)
Instructions
- Prepare all the needed ingredients and, if necessary, already measure and weigh them. Wash the tomato and the two bell peppers and remove the seeds. At the same time, prepare the couscous according to the instructions on the package. Soak the raisins in 60 ml of orange juice.
- Allow the couscous to cool, and stir occasionally to loosen it a bit.
- Thinly peel the skin of the bell peppers. Peel the onion and cut it into very small cubes.
- Peel the cucumber and remove the seeds. Also dice or cut the chili pepper into very small pieces.
- Cut the tomato, bell peppers, cucumber and spring onion into fine cubes. Chop the mint and parsley.
- Mix the vegetables, raisins including orange juice and parsley into the couscous and season the almost finished Tabouli with salt. Now mint, lemon juice, vinegar and olive oil are mixed in.
- The salad should then be left to infuse for at least 10 minutes.
