Fresh Veggie Couscous Salad

A light and tangy summer pasta salad featuring couscous, garbanzo beans, kalamata olives, and fresh vegetables tossed in a light vinaigrette and served with fresh greens.

Salads are incredible creations, aren’t they?

I think it’s amazing that you can literally combine any number of different ingredients to make just about any kind of salad you can imagine. Savory or sweet, hot or cold, vegetable or fruit, pasta or grains, naked or dressed, creamy or vinegar, fresh or frozen, tossed or layered, and so on.

What’s your favorite salad?

I have my fair share of favorite go-to salad combinations, including this easy Fresh Veggie Couscous Salad. I like it because it is light, cool, and refreshing with the fresh taste of summer.

Besides being absolutely delicious, it has other enticing attributes as well. Whenever the weather starts warming up, this Fresh Veggie Couscous Salad always makes the cut.

I especially love that this salad is super easy to make and can be made a day before you want to serve it. It’s perfect for summer since it can be served at room temperature or chilled. Either way, this makes it great for backyard barbecues, picnics, potlucks, dinners, and parties. And almost most important, this salad is extremely nutritious!

Let’s chat about the ingredients, shall we?

This Fresh Veggie Couscous Salad contains pasta, vegetables, olives and artichokes, chickpeas, salad greens, and a light but flavorful dressing.

To start, I enjoy making this salad with couscous. I simply adore the taste and feel in my mouth. And I think the teeny-tiny bits of pasta pair very well with the crisp vegetables. Plus, you can literally pour boiling water over the couscous and it’s ready in just a few minutes. No fuss. Easy. Simple.

If you prefer, you can substitute the couscous with any type of pasta or whole grain you have in your pantry. Great grain choices might include quinoa, millet, or sorghum. All of these are great gluten-free whole grain alternatives to the couscous. When it comes down to it, the choice is yours.

This salad makes a great main course or entree because you create a complete protein when you combine the pasta (or whole grains) with the garbanzo beans, affectionally referred to as chickpeas. I think food science is kinda cool. And since I adore chickpeas, I think they’re absolutely perfect in this salad.

Not only do they provide a great deal of texture and flavor, but they’re also super nutritious. Just one ounce of chickpeas contains 3 grams of healthy protein and 2 grams of dietary fiber. Chickpeas also contain vital nutrients like folate, iron, phosphorous, copper, manganese. (Healthline)

Next up are the fresh vegetables! After all, these are the star of the show (or salad) – in my humble opinion. I love eating different colors of the rainbow – the more the merrier! And this salad includes all the colors of the rainbow! This is one important reason why I recommend using a purple onion, though you can use any onion you have on hand.

Regarding bell peppers, I like using whatever color of bell peppers I have in my refrigerator -> red, yellow, orange, purple, brown, and/or green. Zucchini and cucumber cover different shades of green; meanwhile, grape tomatoes and roasted red peppers proudly represent shades of red rather well.

Chopped artichoke hearts, quartered kalamata olives, and capers are now added to the salad. They each provide such great variety of color, texture, and flavor. Sprinkle in some chopped fresh parsley and/or cilantro and you’re good to go.

Now it’s time to make the dressing for this Fresh Veggie Couscous Salad. It’s made super easy in a blender. Simply combine some red wine vinegar, applesauce, Dijon mustard, agave syrup, fresh garlic, and Italian seasoning. Once the dressing is combined well, adjust the seasonings to taste, including black pepper and salt, if desired.

Sprinkle the dressing over the couscous and vegetables; then stir it all together until combined.

For the salad greens, you can use anything!! Seriously, any dark leafy greens are fantastic addition to this salad. This can include spinach, baby spinach, leaf lettuce, kale, chard, arugula, and more. You can choose to either keep the greens intact or roughly chop them up. Chopping up the greens may make it easier to eat.

Believe it or not, you have two more options.

You can serve the Fresh Veggie Couscous atop the greens to make the salad or you can toss the chopped greens in with the salad like the photo above. I enjoy serving the couscous-veggies atop the greens and my husband prefers that we toss it all together.

It’s a toss-up! Haha!

This Fresh Veggie Couscous Salad can be served at room temperature or stored in the refrigerator until ready to enjoy. It makes incredibly delicious and easy leftovers, is portable, and travels very well. Like I said, all these reasons make this Fresh Veggie Couscous Salad great for meal prep, camping, backyard bbq, picnics, potluck, work or school lunches, and easy and nutritious dinners.

I hope you enjoy this Fresh Veggie Couscous Salad as much as I do.  

I would love to see your results! Please leave a comment and rate it down below, tag a picture @pebblesandtoast and #pebblesandtoast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!   Enjoy!!   

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Salad Ingredients

• 3 cups garbanzo beans, cooked and drained (2 cans)
• 1 10-ounce package couscous*
• ½ purple onion, chopped
• ½ bell pepper, chopped
• ½ zucchini, chopped
• ½ cucumber, chopped
• 8 ounces grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup roasted red peppers, chopped
• ½ cup artichoke hearts, chopped
• ½ cup kalamata olives, quartered
• ¼ cup capers
• ½ cup fresh parsley or cilantro, chopped
• salad greens, spinach, kale, or lettuce, roughly chopped**
• salt to taste (optional) 

Dressing Ingredients

• ½ cup red wine vinegar
• ½ cup applesauce
• 2 Tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 Tbsp agave syrup
• 1 tsp italian seasoning blend
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 1 clove garlic, peeled

Instructions

1. Cook the couscous (or pasta or grain) according to package directions.  Set aside.

1. Meanwhile, make the dressing by combining all of the dressing ingredients in a blender.
2. Process on high speed until blended and smooth.

1. Combine the couscous, garbanzo beans, vegetables and salad dressing in a large bowl.
2. Toss all together until well combined.

1. Roughly chop the salad greens.
2. Serve the couscous salad over the chopped salad greens or toss the chopped greens with the couscous salad.

Notes

* As an alternative to cooking the couscous on the stove, I’ve  successfully poured 2 cups of boiling water (from my tea kettle) into a glass measuring cup and stirred in the box of couscous.  In 5 minutes, it’s ready to go.  Make sure you use the amount of water as indicated on the package. 

** You can use any fresh greens you prefer or have on hand. You can keep them intact and serve the salad atop the greens.  You can also chop the greens and incorporate them into the salad.