Moroccan cous cous salad

This is a go to salad for me, when cooking for a crowd. It ticks all the boxes, it is quick and easy to make, keeps well without refrigeration and tastes good. Also it is something that can be made with items that are probably in your pantry right now. Nancy found a recipe for this a few years ago, neither of us can remember where, and it has definitely morphed over the years.

Cous cous is actually a very small pasta, though it looks like a grain. I made this the other evening when we were enjoying yet another beautiful warm evening and wanted to throw dinner together quickly with out shopping.

Feeds 6

1 cup of cous cous
2 cups of boiling water or hot chicken stock
1 teaspoon of ground cardamom
1 small can of garbanzo beans or half a large
1 bunch of green onion chopped
1/3 cup of chopped dates (or raisins)
1/3 cup of roasted almonds slivered or chopped
Juice of one lemon
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup chopped mint
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Put the cous cous  and cardamom into a bowl and add the boiling water and 1 teaspoon of salt or stock.

Cover with a plate or saran wrap and leave for at least 5 minutes.  The cous cous will absorb the liquid and should be dry enough to seperate when picked up with a fork.

While the cous cous is absorbing the liquid prepare all the other ingredients. 

Lemon olives and rosemary almonds

One more party before the holiday season grinds to a halt, so here are a couple of ideas for New Years eve. Both these are quick and easy to make and put out when company is coming. They both take very little time, but look and taste so much better than opening up a package of pre made snack.

You could use any type of olives with the exception of those tasteless canned black olive slices that are put on pizza. This time I used large pitted green, but I have used mixed olives, black olives and even sun dried Moroccan olives.

Lemon marinated olives

2 cups of drained olives.
1 lemon
Handful of parsley finely chopped
1/4 cup of good extra virgin olive oil.

Place the drained olives in a bowl Grate the lemon zest on top and then cut the lemon in half.  Slice half the lemon in to thin slices and add to the olives.  Squeeze the juice of the remaining lemon half on top.  Add the parsley and olive oil and stir in. Sometimes I add crushed coriander seeds and finely chopped chili.

Marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours and serve at room temperature.

Quick easy and taste like you spent hours preparing.

Crispy salad with almonds to go

Wednesday night was one of the three Celebration of Lights fireworks competition in Vancouver.  This consists of three nights of the most spectactular fireworks displays and over 1 million people all around English Bay coming down to see them.  I am lucky enough to have a couple of friends who have boats moored within a 10 minute walk of the bay.  So I met with them for a dinner on board before walking over to watch.  I made a salad to go along with some wonderful sandwiches that Nancy made.

I made the dressing at the bottom of the container and then layered the ingredients on top, so that when I arrived and we were ready to eat, all I had to do was shake the container with the lid on and voila freshly tossed salad.

Dressing
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of vinegar (I used my home made herb vinegar this time it was tarragon)
1 tablespoon of dijon mustard
1 small garlic clove grated
1 handful of fresh chopped mint and basil
1 teaspoon of salt.

Salad
1/2 english cucumber cubed
4 campari tomatoes cubed
1/2 bunch green onion chopped
1/2 can of garbanzo beans
1 head of romaine (cos) lettuce chopped

Topping
3/4 cup of toasted slivered almonds

Mix all the dressing ingredients in the bottom of a large sealable container.

Then layer the ingredients finishing with the lettuce, so that it is not touching the dressing, therefore stopping it from getting soggy.