As promised, last Sunday’s salad:

Roasted Vegetable Couscous Salad with Harissa-style Dressing

This one is a Delia Smith special, so it’s a little involved (lots of chopping), but believe me, it’s worth it, and is excellent as leftovers, so don’t be timid about quantities (I usually make about a metric ton, and then live on it for a week). Delia’s version involves sweating eggplants and blanching cherry tomatoes–I do no such thing. I just chop, roast and assemble.

Servngs: Delia says “Serves 4 as a main course or 8 as a starter”. I say serves 2 for dinner plus about 6 lunches.

Ingredients

For the roasted vegetables:
1 small aubergine (eggplant)
2 medium courgettes (zucchinis)
1 lb (450 g) cherry tomatoes, skinned
1 small red pepper, de-seeded and cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) squares
1 small bulb fennel, chopped (save the feathery greens at the top and throw them in too)
1 large onion, sliced and cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) squares
2 fat cloves garlic, crushed
2+ tablespoons fresh basil leaves, torn so that they stay quite visible
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (you may need more if you use two tins to cook the veggies)
2 oz (50 g) pitted black olives, chopped
1 heaped tablespoon capers, drained
salt and freshly milled black pepper

For the couscous:
10 oz (275 g) medium couscous
18 fl oz (500 ml) vegetable stock or water
4 oz (110 g) firm goats’ cheese (if you can find cheddar made with goat cheese, it works very well, otherwise, any sort of firm-ish goat cheese will do)
salt and freshly milled black pepper

For the salad:
1 x 3 oz (75 g) packet mixed salad leaves (such as lettuce, coriander leaves, flat-leaf parsley, rocket)

For the dressing:
4 fl oz (110 ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 rounded teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 level tablespoons ground cumin
2 heaped tablespoons tomato purée
4 tablespoons lime juice (about 2 limes)

To garnish:
1 level tablespoon black onion seeds (I can never find these, the salad doesn’t suffer too much without them)

Method

Preheat the oven to gas mark 9, 475°F (240°C).

Now arrange the aubergine, courgettes, tomatoes, pepper, fennel and onion in the roasting tin (I usually use 2 cookie sheets), sprinkle with the crushed garlic, basil and olive oil, toss everything around in the oil to get a good coating and season with salt and pepper. Place the tin on the highest shelf (if using two trays, put one in top third, one in bottom third and swap after 15-20 minutes) of the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the vegetables are toasted brown at the edges. When the vegetables are done, remove them from the oven and stir in the chopped olives and the capers then allow the whole lot to cool.

When you’re ready to assemble the salad, first place the couscous in a large, heatproof bowl, then pour the boiling stock or water over it (if you use water, you can boil it in an electric kettle to save time and washing a pot), add some salt and pepper, stir it with a fork, then leave on one side for 5 minutes, by which time it will have absorbed all the liquid and softened.

Meanwhile cut the cheese into sugar cube-sized pieces. Make up the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together in a bowl, then pour into a serving jug.

To serve the salad, place the couscous in a large, wide salad bowl and gently fork in the cubes of cheese along with the roasted vegetables. Next arrange the salad leaves on top and, just before serving, drizzle a little of the dressing over the top followed by a sprinkling of onion seeds and hand the rest of the dressing around separately.

Notes: I recommend only putting in as much salad greens as you plan to eat at that time, as they tend to get slimy if stored with the veggies. Instead, store dressing/salad/couscous and veggies separately, and assemble leftovers as needed.

Orzo Salad

This week’s sunday salad. Not as extravagant as last week, but still tasty

Orzo salad
Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups orzo (I used tri-color orzo pasta)
Salt
Black pepper, ground
Extra virgin olive oil (evoo), about 3 tbsp.
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 red bell pepper, roasted* and peeled, diced
Olives, black and/or green, chopped (I used both)
1/2 cup Goat and/or feta cheese, crumbled/diced small (I used the left-over goat-cheddar from last week)
1 Ripe tomato, chopped

Cook pasta according to the instructions on the box (be sure to salt the water).
Drain and season with salt, black pepper, and a splash of a good fruity evoo. Add all the other ingredients, and toss.

* to roast the peppers, slice them in half, clean from the seeds, and place skin side up under the broiler. Once their skin is blackened, remove from oven and place in a bowl, cover with a lid and let it sweat and cool. Once cooled, the skin peels easily. I had never roasted them this way, it was dead easy–the *cut them in half* step is pure genius: no more wrestling with lop-sided peppers trying to get them to roast evenly.

Note: The astute chef will note that this is a pasta salad without red wine vinegar (which violates basic culinary principles). I was planning on adding it, but ended up deciding against it at the last minute. The cheese, olives, peppers and lemon gave it enough flavour. The vinegar seemed like overkill, but, to each his own. You could also add capers or a red onion, if you wanted to experiment a bit.

Encore

An awesome green salad complete with radishes, cuc’s, arugula, lettuce, spinach, purple carrots, and a delicious dressing of left over vinagrette from the artichoke. Yum. The taste of summer.