Cleaning out the Fridge – Couscous Salad

 Easter weekend is approaching quickly, and since we are headed out for the holidays to visit family and friends, I have been trying to not shop for groceries and use up what we have in our fridge before we go.

This isn’t really a recipe (well with exact measurements anyway), but you can really toss in what you like to this mixture.  I will roughly tell you how I made mine.  Great for lunch – or for a supper side dish.

Couscous – is so quick and easy to make.  I like to use chicken stock (for the liquid component), because I find it adds more flavour.  You just need equal parts couscous and liquid.

For this salad you need:

 – 1 cup chicken stock
 – 1 cup couscous

In a small saucepan bring your stock to a boil.  Add in your couscous, stir and return to a boil.  Then turn off the heat, put a tight fitting lid on your couscous and let sit for 5 minutes.  Once five minutes is up…open the lid and fluff the couscous gently with a fork. 

While this was cooking I chopped up a few veggies, that we had to use up in the fridge…this is what I used – use as much or as little as you like in your salad.

 – red onion (about a quarter of one)
 – 1 small yellow pepper
 – 2 radishes, chopped fine
 – 5-6 sun dried tomatoes (oil packed)
 – 6-7 kalamata olives (pitted and chopped)
 – fresh italian parsley and fresh dill, chopped fine (to taste..sorry didn’t measure)
 – about a half of an english cucumber (diced)
 – raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds (a handful)

For the dressing – I used about a 1/4 cup of leftover dressing that I had made for last nights salad…it was a mixture of lemon juice, red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, a glug of honey and a spoonful of dijon mustard, with salt and pepper – use any vinegrette you have on hand, or a simple one that you like to make.