Herb-y Couscous Salad with Shrimp (or without!)

This is a favorite of ours because it is light, refreshing, healthy, quick, versatile and a bunch of other positive adjectives I’ll leave out!

I like to serve the salad at room temp with the warm shrimp, but the salad is also good as a chilled side for a barbecue or picnic. It is hard to find uncooked fresh shrimp here, so I get mine frozen from Picard and thaw them. The original recipe from Food & Wine Magazine uses mint instead of the basil, but we’re not huge mint fans. Feel free to substitute mint or parsley or add chickpeas or feta to make it a heartier dish.

Herb-y Couscous Salad with Shrimp

Servings: 4

Active time: 30

Cooking Time: 5 minutes

1 ½ cups (350 ml) chicken broth

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (250 g) couscous

2 medium ripe tomatoes, small diced (I like plum tomatoes for this)

½ of a medium sized red onion, minced

1 cup (150 g) frozen peas, thawed

½ cup (15 g) thinly sliced fresh basil

5 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Salt

Ground black pepper

½ teaspoon Lawry’s Seasoned Salt (or regular salt and a dash of cayenne pepper)

12 – 16 medium shrimp, shelled and deveined (frozen or fresh)

In a medium saucepan, bring the broth to a boil. Stir in the couscous, cover and remove from heat. Let stand at least 5 minutes. Transfer to the serving bowl and fluff with a fork, breaking up any clumps.

Add the chopped tomatoes, onion, basil and peas. In a little bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and 4 tablespoons of the olive oil and ½ a teaspoon of salt and a little less black pepper. Pour over the couscous and gently ‘toss’ it all together.

Devein and shell the shrimp (get those poop shoots out!). Put in a small bowl and mix with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the Lawry’s Seasoned Salt (or regular salt and cayenne). Heat a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and cook for 1 ½ minutes on each side.

Serve the couscous salad topped with the shrimp.

And bon appétit!