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Home / Recipes / Side Dishes / Mediterranean Couscous Salad

Mediterranean Couscous Salad

30 mins
| Leave a Comment |
5 from 9 votes
Jump to Recipe 04/25/22 | Updated: 04/25/22 | by Nora
Couscous Salad Pin 1

This Mediterranean Couscous Salad is easy to make and so refreshing for summer. It’s filled with vegetables, Feta cheese, olives and a delicious vinaigrette dressing – great as a side dish for outdoor grilling!

overhead view of glass bowl filled with mediterranean couscous salad

You can’t beat a good salad, if you ask me! And I especially love them in the summer to pair with grilled meats or fish.

This couscous salad is filled with all of the Mediterranean goodies you can think of. It’s one of my favorite hot weather dishes, I’m so excited to share my recipe with you!

Ingredients you’ll need

Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!

overhead view of ingredients for couscous salad with text labels
Ingredients for Mediterranean Couscous Salad: Couscous, water, olive oil, butter, salt, cooked or canned chickpeas, Feta cheese, cucumbers, bell pepper, red onion, tomatoes, fresh herbs, black olives and lemon vinaigrette.

Ingredient notes

  • Dressing: I use my Lemon Vinaigrette, but you could also do a Greek Salad Dressing or a White Balsamic Vinaigrette.
  • Couscous: I use fine/instant Moroccan couscous in this recipe, but you can substitute pearl couscous if you prefer.
  • Tomatoes: I use cherry tomatoes here, but you can use large tomatoes and dice them. If they are very seedy/watery inside, I highly recommend draining them well.
  • Cucumber: Again, if your cucumber has a large seeded part in the middle, I recommend trimming it away. You can eat it if you don’t want to toss it (my kids love it!), but cucumbers with lots of large seeds release a lot of water and can turn your salad into a mess.
  • Olives: Kalamata are my favorite olive for anything Mediterranean, but feel free to use what you like best!
  • Herbs: I used parsley, mint and oregano. You can use whatever fresh herbs you have on hand!

How to make Couscous Salad

1. Start by preparing your couscous. The instructions are usually on the back of the packet, but I’ve included how I prepare it in the recipe card at the bottom of this post, just in case.

2. Prepare the dressing – just combine all of the dressing ingredients together in a small measuring jug!

ingredients for couscous salad in glass bowl before mixing
assemble ingredients
salad dressing pouring over couscous salad ingredients
add dressing

3. Assemble all of the ingredients into a large salad bowl. Pour the dressing on top, then toss the salad to mix everything.

4. You can serve the salad right away, or you can refrigerate it for up to a day (I find the vegetables get too soggy if you store it for longer).

couscous frontal view of couscous salad in glass bowl with wooden spoon stuck in salad
toss salad and serve

Recipe tips

  • Chopping vegetables evenly: It’s a little more work, but it pays off to carefully chop everything evenly:
    • I try to get the cucumber and bell pepper diced to about half the size of a halved Roma cherry tomato (if you use regular round cherry tomatoes, you may want to quarter those tomatoes if they’re on the larger side). And by the way: Learn how to cut bell peppers the easy way!
    • Olives I dice to about the size of a chickpea, and onion I dice to about ½ a chickpea.
    • Herbs I chop quite finely, but I don’t turn them into a herb paste.
    • (Feta isn’t a vegetable, but if you’re wondering… it crumbles and breaks up a lot as you toss the salad!)
  • Adding dressing: I try to pour the dressing evenly all over the salad and not just in one spot, this makes it easier to get dressing on everything when tossing.
  • Make it your own: You can really customize this salad to suit your taste/what you have on hand. Roasted red peppers are a really tasty addition, artichoke hearts if you’re into those, oven-roasted zucchini, white beans… So many options to add your own twist on this!
  • Salad amount: We are an extended family of 7, so this makes a large bowl of salad. You can easily cut the recipe in half if you need less.

Storage tips

Keep the salad in a covered bowl, refrigerated, for up to a day. You could technically keep it for 2-3 days, but I find the vegetables start to get too soggy after about 24 hours, so I do not recommend prepping it ahead intentionally.

Serving ideas

We often have a salad like this for lunch when it’s too hot to eat. My kids love adding some pita bread on the side.

If we use the couscous salad as a side with dinner, it’s great with grilled Greek Marinated Chicken, with grilled steak (marinated in my favorite steak marinade!) or with grilled pork chops (again, a great pork chop marinade is a must!).

overhead view of couscous salad in white bowl with a fork

PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.

Printable Recipe Card
overhead view of glass bowl filled with mediterranean couscous salad
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Mediterranean Couscous Salad

This Mediterranean Couscous Salad is easy to make and so refreshing for summer. It's filled with vegetables, Feta cheese, olives and a delicious vinaigrette dressing – great as a side dish for outdoor grilling!
Recipe by Nora from Savory Nothings
made it? tap the stars to add your rating!
5 from 9 votes
Print Add Review

Recipe details

Prep 20 mins
Cook 10 mins
Total 30 mins
Servings 8 servings
Difficulty Easy

Ingredients
 

For the couscous

  • 1 cup water
  • ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 cup uncooked Moroccan couscous perl couscous is fine as a substitute
  • ½ tablespoon butter

For the dressing

  • ½ cup olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
  • 4-6 tablespoons lemon juice start with 4tbsp, add more to taste
  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar OR white wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon runny honey
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder or more to taste
  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano or more to taste; OR use your favorite fresh or dried herb
  • salt & pepper to taste

For the salad

  • 1 pint Roma cherry tomatoes halved (about ½ inch)
  • 2 small-medium cucumbers finely diced (about ¼ inch)
  • 1 large yellow bell pepper finely diced (about ¼ inch)
  • 1 small-medium red onion finely chopped (about ⅛ inch)
  • 1 (15-oz) can chickpeas drained and rinsed
  • ½ cup pitted kalamata olives roughly chopped; or your preferred olive type
  • ½ cup chopped fresh herbs I used oregano, parsley and mint – use your favorites
  • ½ cup crumbled Feta cheese

Instructions
 

  • Cook couscous: Bring water, olive oil and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add couscous, stir, and cover with a lid. Turn off the heat and set aside for 5 minutes.
  • Make dressing: While couscous is resting, combine all dressing ingredients in a medium measuring jug. Set aside until ready to use.
  • Finish couscous: Open lid, add butter and fluff couscous with a fork; distributing butter throughout.
  • Assemble salad: Add couscous to a large salad bowl, with all salad ingredients. Pour dressing evenly over salad and toss to combine. Serve immediately or refrigerate, covered, for up to a day.
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Notes

Vegetable size: I prefer using cherry tomatoes and small cucumbers for this recipe, because they generally release less water into the dressing. If you’re using a large cucumber/large tomatoes instead, cut away the seeded part and drain them well.
Make it your own: You can really customize this salad to suit your taste/what you have on hand. Roasted red peppers are a really tasty addition, artichoke hearts if you’re into those, oven-roasted zucchini, white beans… So many options to add your own twist on this!
Salad amount: We are an extended family of 7, so this makes a large bowl of salad. You can easily cut the recipe in half if you need less.

Nutrition

Serving: 1servingCalories: 389kcalCarbohydrates: 42gProtein: 10gFat: 21gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 3gMonounsaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 10mgSodium: 357mgPotassium: 520mgFiber: 7gSugar: 8gVitamin A: 802IUVitamin C: 53mgCalcium: 114mgIron: 3mg
Nutrition is an estimate.

More recipe information

Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: Mediterranean

More summer salads

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Nora Rusev from Savory Nothings
About Nora 
When I got married to my professional chef husband, I realized I had to step up my game in the kitchen. Now I share my favorite foolproof family recipes here on Savory Nothings: Chef-approved, kid-vetted and easy enough for everyday home cooks like you and me!   Learn more.

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Hi, I'm Nora! I wasn't always a good cook, but then I fell in love with a professional chef and learned my way around the kitchen. Now I share all my secrets to effortlessly great food here on my blog, bite-sized for home cooks just like me and you.

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