Red couscous party salad

Ingredients for 10 servings:

• 2 onions
• 1 clove(s) garlic
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 150 g tomato paste
• some salt
• 1 pinch(s) of pepper
• 800 ml water
• 350 g couscous
• 3 peppers
• 200 g cherry tomatoes
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 1 dash of olive oil
• 1 cucumber(s)
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp salt
• some pepper
• 1 tsp sweet paprika powder
• some dill

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 15 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour

simple and delicious, also very variable and nutritious

First, finely chop the onions and garlic and sauté them in a large pot with the tomato paste, a little salt, and pepper in the olive oil over medium heat for about 3 minutes. Then add the water and simmer for 6 minutes, reducing the heat if necessary. Now add the couscous and let everything thicken for about 5 minutes, until there is no more liquid at the bottom of the pot and you have to scrape it up a bit when stirring. At this point, remove the pot from the heat and let everything cool for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables. Lightly chop the peppers, tomatoes, and parsley, then chop them in a blender with a dash of olive oil until you have a nice, finely chopped vegetable mass. The result should not be too fine (no mush), but should resemble a bruschetta topping. Finally, finely chop the cucumber and mix the remaining ingredients into the dressing, which you can of course vary and experiment with. Finally, mix everything together in a salad bowl and refrigerate. Ideally, the salad should be left to marinate overnight, but it tastes delicious even fresh and still lukewarm! Don’t be put off – it has a lot of ingredients, but this salad is actually pretty quick to make. The three essential steps (onion and couscous base, pepper and tomato mixture, and dressing) are easy to prepare. It should also be mentioned right away that the salad is extremely adaptable – almost any ingredient can be omitted or even doubled, but this will not detract from the result. Of course, many other ingredients can also be added, such as feta (which also goes perfectly in it). In my experience, the salad is a real hit at every party and tastes good to practically everyone. It also keeps for a very long time in the refrigerator because it doesn’t contain any particularly sensitive ingredients. It is also vegetarian and vegan-friendly and extremely nutritious.