First written in August 2013, refreshed and updated in November 2021.
I wanted to try a couscous salad that I have been doing for a while and see if I could get it sub 50p. Well, it worked out at 71p for the dish in the picture, and there is plenty there for two, so 35p each, billy bargain
How to make an easy Couscous Salad
Put the couscous in a bowl and add the zest and juice of the lemon, the oil and water. Add grated carrot. Cook the peas (1 min in the microwave from frozen will do it) and add to the couscous.
Chop the herbs very finely and add. Mix in the cashews. Leave all to stand for 10 minutes or so. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.
Half of this will be my lunch tomorrow. I wanted to make the recipe as reproducable as possible, otherwise I would have added some grated courgette as we have lots of them at the moment, and rummaged around in the fridge more to see what I could throw in.
What is this veggie couscous salad like?
You get a large portion with these amounts. You may not want that much, so if there are any leftovers, pop them into a container and store in the fridge ready for an instant home made ready meal.
Although the ingredients are simple, this is a very tasty lunch or dinner, especially if you can get hold of some herbs. The zest of the lemon in particular gives a fresh taste, and the lemon juice lifts it. It’s filling ad sustaining and will happily sit in a lunchbox.
What changes can I make to a salted cashew vegan couscous salad?
You can add a great many other vegetables to this, depending on what you have.
- Cooked peppers from a jar
- Fine sliced radishes
- Fine chopped cucumber
- Tomato
- Raw or cooked broccoli or cauliflower.
- Or how about some roasted courgette and carrot, the red is a pepper that was in the fridge, have a look to see what you have in the fridge and cupboard and put in anything that you like in a combination, it will be yummy!
You can serve it as a warm couscous salad instead of cold, which is nicer if you are eating it in cold weather.
Serve alongside some chicken or halloumi which has been tossed in tandoori spice before cooking for a tasty addition.
Change the salted cashews to any other nut that you have, they will all work and be delicious in this.
This features in Meal Plan 2 a complete 7 day plan for 2 adults. Contains 3 meals a day, plus snacks , all recipes and a shopping list
Ingredients
- 125 g couscous £1.05/500g 26p
- 2 tblsp oil £1.15/1 litre, 4p
- ½ juice and zest of lemon 20p each, 5p
- 60 g peas 73p/kg, 4p
- 40 g carrot grated, 43p/kg, 2p
- sprig mint, basil and coriander if you have them
- 30 g salted cashews 1.70/200g, 25p
- ¼ onion sliced very fine, 70p/kg, 5p
Instructions
- Put the couscous in a bowl and add the zest and juice of the lemon, the oil and 125ml water.
- Add the carrot. Cook the peas (1 min in the microwave from frozen will do it) and add to the couscous.
- Chop the herbs very finely and add.
- Mix in the cashews.
- Leave all to stand for 10 minutes or so.
- Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.
Equipment Needed
Notes
Variations
You can add a great many other vegetables to this, depending on what you have. Cooked peppers from a jar, fine sliced radishes, fine chopped cucumber, tomato, raw or cooked broccoli or cauliflower. Or how about some roasted courgette and carrot, the red is a pepper that was in the fridge, have a look to see what you have in the fridge and cupboard and put in anything that you like in a combination, it will be yummy! This features in Meal Plan 1, a complete 7 day plan for 2 adults. Contains 3 meals a day, plus snacks , all recipes and a shopping list
Gabriella – I have always used cold water for this and it’s worked very well. I know most recipes say to use boiling water, but when I experimented for a plan where people had no power to heat anything, cold water was fine.
Hi, Not sure, is the water being put on boiling or cold? I thought that to cook the cous cous it needed to be hot but would that not make the nuts to rubbery?
Eleanor – that’s a very good use up!
Just tried this using some old couscous I had in the cupboard, a manky carrot and spring onions and the last of a cucumber. It was delicious, the lemon really makes it, so glad I had one!
Thanks Lesley, this will be a regular packed lunch from now on.
Well, with things so cheap here, unless you really need to, does it matter? Cashews AND feta sounds good to me
And thanks for the compliment, it means a lot
I’m just really bad at being thrifty – after all, if cashews taste nice in it, and feta tastes nice in it, it’s a very short step to adding both, and feeling the impact on both my waistline and my purse.
Thank you again for this resource – I haven’t tried anything here that I didn’t like!
Well, salads like these are one of the many things that can be varied indefinitely depending entirely on what you have available. That’s what home cooking is all about after all!
I tried this at the weekend and thought it was absolutely delicious. Even my husband (who’s a carrot hater) liked it. I’ve made an adaptation to take to work today for lunch – no peas, more red onion, spring onion and lemon juice, some chopped red pepper and a little bit of feta cheese. Admittedly that has probably put the cost up again, even though the onion and spring onions were from the garden.
Gem – Brilliant, so glad you liked it !
Decided to try out the meal plans and this is the first recipe that we’ve tried and I was amazed at how good this looked and tasted. All those veggies!! Being broke doesn’t seem so bad now. Thank you.
Yes, that’s right, no need to cook, the couscous will just soak it up after a few minutes
Do you need to precook the couscous or does it absorb the 125ml of water?