Meow Recipes: Couscous Salad with Lime Basil Vinaigrette

Couscous salad in a bowl with sweet potatoes and black beans.

What a strange and delicious combination I’m about to feed you.

You’re looking at a beautiful, colorful, confetti-like bowl full of:

Couscous
Sweet potatoes
Black beans – but any kind of beans are great!
Spinach
Feta
Red Onion
Pistachios – because I love them! but any nuts / seeds, or no nuts / seeds also work
Lime basil vinaigrette

You think it might lean Mexican-inspired with the sweet potato black bean thing…. but then there’s feta and red onion… and some pistachios… and the lime basil vinaigrette is where things get pretty solidly quirky.

It’s so good, so nutritious (!!), and so nostalgic.

I used to make this salad all the time way back in the day, featuring a bottle of pre-made dressing, because that’s what my trusty five ingredient Cooking Light cookbook recommended. I was youthful and new to cooking and I loved easy recipes (still true, actually). Now I’m less youthful, more opinionated about things like making your own dressing, and ready for the still-easy but slightly more grown up version of this salad.

You still with me?

Ingredients in bowls for couscous salad.

Our dressing here is a punchy lime basil vinaigrette. Which is kind of a lot going on flavor-wise because lime and basil are both big flavors. But big flavors get two thumbs up from me.

You have alternate dressing options if you’d like to stay closer to home on this: cilantro lime vinaigrette (use this same method but swap basil for cilantro). lemon vinaigrette (look here).

Or… you can trust me and plow forward fearlessly into the land of basil-heavy summery tasting green dressing.

Basil lime vinaigrette in a food processor.

Take a taste – do you need more of something? Salt? Oil? Lime? Basil? Tweak it till you get it just right and do not panic if it’s very very flavorful.

This is going to soak in with a bunch of otherwise plain veggies so we need it to be BOSSY.

Get all your stuff in a bowl, toss with dressing, salt and pepper, and muah. It’s summery, a little bit unexpected, and the best way to make lunch / veggies / nutrition / happiness all work together.

Couscous Salad with Lime Basil Vinaigrette

Author: Lindsay
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 6

Print Recipe

Description

A bright, zippy, unexpectedly delicious couscous salad that’s packed with sweet potatoes, black beans, spinach, feta, and more – all tossed with a life-changing lime basil vinaigrette!

Ingredients

Couscous Sweet Potato Black Bean Salad

3/4 cup couscous
1 cup water
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced (about 3 cups)
1 14-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups baby spinach, cut into small pieces
4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
half a red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped pistachios (optional)

Lime Basil Vinaigrette

1 bunch of fresh basil (1/2 cup packed)
1/2 cup olive oil
juice of 1–2 limes (to taste)
1 clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 to 1/2 cup water, if needed

Instructions

Video

Pulse all dressing ingredients in a food processor until smooth-ish.
Cook couscous in 1 cup water, according to package directions. Fluff with a fork and cool.
Place sweet potatoes in a skillet with about 1/2 cup water and a sprinkle of salt. Cover and simmer until fork-tender. Drain and set aside to cool.
Toss all ingredients together with dressing, season with salt and pepper, and serve! (OR, store each ingredient individually for salads throughout the week.)