Summer Cous Cous Chicken Salad

A good friend of mine, Darlene, introduced me to this salad last year while we were camping together, and it's only taken me a year to ask for the recipe! She told me its best to make this salad ahead of time and let sit in the fridge at least over night to let all the flavours combine, but she also warned that the cucumbers can go soggy, so add those at the end before serving.

With a few substitutions and additions, I made this salad Monday night for one of our lighter-fare dinners. I kept mainly to the recipe for the amounts (this one serves 4 easily, so needless to say, we have some left overs for tonight...). The major addition was a chicken breast, cooked and diced, to add a bit of protein, and instead of feta, I used goat cheese, which I had on hand. I would say you really could throw anything into this dish and it would still turn out fantastic! I especially liked the dressing, which added a nice subtle drizzle of flavour, and since the cous cous absorbs most of it, it's not a runny salad by any means.

Now that I look at the recipe again, I think I only used the pine nuts and cucumber! I added orange peppers, and none of the other ingredients, in fact (this was probably due to me shopping without the list of ingredients on hand...). The original recipe is below, but feel free to experiment,as I did. 

Ingredients

2 cups water
1/3 cups cous cous

1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup olive oil

1 cucumber, seeded and chopped
1 (4 ounce) container crumbled feta cheese
6 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

Directions

Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Remove from the heat, and stir in the couscous. Cover, and let stand for 10 minutes. Scrape the couscous into a mixing bowl, fluff with a fork, and refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.

Once the couscous is cold, make the dressing by whisking together the salt, black pepper, red wine vinegar, and Dijon mustard in a small bowl. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while continuing to whisk until the oil has thickened the dressing. Fold the cucumber, feta cheese, green onions, parsley, and pine nuts into the couscous. Pour the dressing overtop, and stir until evenly moistened. Chill 30 minutes before serving.

I'll be posting our Fat Friday - Out Of Town Edition shortly, so you'll understand why we opted for a lighter dinner on Monday. Plus, we also enjoyed some wings with my father on Wednesday, so that's partly another reason why...