{"id":152,"date":"2016-11-11T14:25:39","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T20:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.topenga.net\/art\/?p=152"},"modified":"2016-11-11T14:25:39","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T20:25:39","slug":"mediterranean-inspired-couscous-salad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.topenga.net\/art\/?p=152","title":{"rendered":"Mediterranean Inspired Couscous salad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mediterranean (inspired?) Couscous Salad<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/p>\n

–Couscous
\n–Broth or water
\n–Tomatoes (cherry, grape, heirloom, whatever you like)
\n–Crumbled feta cheese (small mozzarella balls work too!)
\n–Fresh basil
\n–Pitted Kalamata olives
\n–Lemon juice
\n–Balsamic vinegar
\n–Minced garlic
\n–Olive Oil
\n–Salt<\/p>\n

You might notice a severe lack of measurements. Yeah, about that… I just kinda eye-ball this kind of stuff. Sorry.<\/p>\n

Directions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Cook the couscous. 1 cup of dry couscous to every 1 to 1.5 cups of liquid.\n
      \n
    1. In a saucepan, bring your choice of liquid to a boil.<\/li>\n
    2. Stir in dry couscous.<\/li>\n
    3. Turn off the heat and put a lid on the pan. Let it steam for 5-10 minutes.<\/li>\n
    4. Fluff with a fork.<\/li>\n
    5. Let it cool.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    6. While your couscous is steaming, cut your tomatoes into small pieces. Or not. If you like whole cherry\/grape tomatoes, go for it. I would recommend dicing if you’re using regulation sized tomatoes, though.<\/li>\n
    7. Slice your olives. Halves, quarters, whatever. Or not. Like ’em whole? Leave ’em whole!<\/li>\n
    8. Slice your fresh basil into small ribbons (a chiffonade if you want to get all fancy French with it). You don’t want to use tons because it will overwhelm everything. Just enough for some flavor and color.<\/li>\n
    9. Add your tomatoes, feta, olives and basil to a bowl<\/li>\n
    10. In another bowl, add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, salt and garlic. Whisk until everything is combined to make a basic dressing. Taste your mix. Not enough acid? Add more lemon juice or vinegar. You don’t need much. Maybe start with a tablespoon of each liquid then add more or less to suit your needs. IF YOU WANT<\/strong>: marinate the tomatoes, cheese, olives and basil in the dressing for 30 minutes.<\/li>\n
    11. Combine your cooled couscous, tomatoes, feta, olives, and basil.<\/li>\n
    12. If you didn’t marinate, now is the time to drizzle some of the dressing onto your salad. Combine gently.<\/li>\n
    13. Taste it! Add more dressing or whatever until it tastes the way you want it to.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Optional additions: Chicken, red peppers, broccoli, etc. Don’t like couscous? Have a ton of quinoa because you keep forgetting that you’re out of couscous? Use it instead! Play with it. Have fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Mediterranean (inspired?) Couscous Salad Ingredients: –Couscous –Broth or water –Tomatoes (cherry, grape, heirloom, whatever you like) –Crumbled feta cheese (small mozzarella balls work too!) –Fresh basil –Pitted Kalamata olives –Lemon juice –Balsamic vinegar –Minced garlic –Olive Oil –Salt You might notice a severe lack of measurements. Yeah, about that… I just kinda eye-ball this kind … Continue reading Mediterranean Inspired Couscous salad<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[29,53,52,54],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Rylh-2s","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.topenga.net\/art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.topenga.net\/art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.topenga.net\/art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.topenga.net\/art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.topenga.net\/art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.topenga.net\/art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153,"href":"http:\/\/www.topenga.net\/art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions\/153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.topenga.net\/art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.topenga.net\/art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.topenga.net\/art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}