Green Couscous Salad

Green Cous­cous Salad, orig­i­nally uploaded by Bipo­lar­Lawyer­Cook.

I made this for a BBQ our friends A. and P. threw. Quite yummy– we chowed it all down while the boys went out for more propane.

Take some israeli cous­cous (pastina would work fine, too), cooked 15 min. in olive oil and dou­ble the amount of water. Put chopped thin aspara­gus on top the last 7 mins., uncov­er­ing the pot halfway to make sure the water is absorbed. Pour the hot cous­cous and aspara­gus into a bowl, add one bunch chopped raw scal­lions and one juli­enned (Boston Organ­ics) zuc­chini. Stir. Dress while warm with a fresh herb pesto made of olive oil, 1 branch rose­mary, and gen­er­ous amounts of pars­ley and basil, the zest of one lemon, and the juice of 1 1/2 lemons. Adjust for salt and pep­per– I added a fair amount of lemon pep­per sea­son­ing. When cooled, stir in chunks of goat cheese or feta. If the salad absorbs all the liq­uid as it cools, add the juice of another 1/2 lemon and a splash of olive oil just before adding the cheese, to moisten.  If you leave the cheese out, you might con­sider putting in more herbs right before serving.

This should be a more-vegetable-than-couscous salad, with the starchy cous­cous just a hint of sweet­ness against the pre­dom­i­nat­ing fla­vors and crunch of the vegetables.