Couscous salad with cream cheese pearls

Ingredients for 3 servings:

• 100 ml vegetable broth, hot (instant broth possible)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• 100 g couscous, instant
• ½ cucumber(s)
• ½ bell pepper(s)
• 10 cherry tomatoes, colorful, more if needed
• 2 spring onions
• 1 cup cream cheese, grainy (200 g)
• e.g. salt and pepper
• e.g. chili
• 1 tbsp rapeseed oil

Instructions

Working time approx. 20 minutes; Rest time approx. 5 hours; Total time approx. 5 hours 20 minutes

also suitable as a quick souvenir for the office

Stir the lemon juice and tomato paste into the hot broth until the paste has dissolved. Then add the couscous and stir it in with a fork, set it aside, and let it swell, stirring once more. While the couscous is swelled, chop the salad ingredients. Dice the cucumber and bell pepper, slice the cherry tomatoes and spring onions, and mix everything together in a larger bowl. Rinse the cream cheese in a fine sieve under cold running water until the liquid has evaporated, leaving only the cream cheese pearls. These are then allowed to drain. Once the couscous has finished swelled, fluff it up again with a fork and then mix it with the salad ingredients. Add the cream cheese pearls, and finally season everything with salt, pepper, and chili, and drizzle with a little oil. This amount is enough for two servings as a side dish, plus one for the office the next day. I put the salad in an empty jam jar, add a boiled egg or a meatball, and a few cherry tomatoes. That’s enough for lunch. Other ingredients can be added as desired: olives, zucchini, feta (instead of cream cheese), pine nuts, or corn…