Couscous Salad with Chickpeas, Roasted Tomatoes and Boiled Eggs

This couscous salad with roasted tomatoes, cumin and garlic tossed chickpeas, and eggs covered in a cumin flavored yogurt dressing happened last weekend. I would have posted the recipe sooner, but my computer just kept playing spoil sport. I have finally upgraded the RAM, and now it seems to be working fine, and the internet which stopped working yesterday, is back on, so hopefully I will be back to blogging and sharing recipes with you again.

Its pretty difficult to write a post about cooked food because this salad was also my big send off to raw week. Which means while I am typing this recipe I have been on raw food for 4 days now. Remember the last time I went raw? I have it all documented here. This time I have been updating my instagram with my raw routine, so if you are interested in checking it out you can here.

V and I for most parts eat healthy. Except for the chocolate snacking I do. And thats why I guess this week was necessary. Last week we had a gym class in our new gym which has these horrible mirrors and to cut a long story short after that class I decided to go raw for this week. As a way to detox, to lose weight and to just get away from chocolate and processed foods for a while. So that I do not have to look at those horrible mirrors and feel the way I did when I look at them.

I had survived the last time I went raw and thought this time will be easier. You know, because I have already done it once. But nope, it isn’t. TV shows don’t help. Facebook and instagram feeds are equally bad. Why did I have to like so many food related pages?? Quick homemade ramen noodles, Indian tacos, naked dumpling soups, mini cakes. They all haunt me now. So does this salad.

The recipe for the salad is from the What Katie Ate Cookbook. Such a visual delight this book is, much like Katie’s blog. This is the second recipe I have tried from her book. The first was a version of her pumkpin ravioli with a browned butter sauce. I made spinach and mushroom ravioli and it was divine. (Sadly, I did not take pictures, but will make it again and will surely share that recipe). This salad lived up to the expectations the success of the first recipe trial raised from.

Roasting tomatoes is my favorite thing now. They make great sauces, and great additions to salads. And you can roast them ahead in time. Once roasted just cover them with extra virgin olive oil and store them in the refrigerator till you need to use them.

The original recipe calls for boiling the eggs for 5 minutes so that the whites are set but the yolks are still gooey. I do not like soft boiled eggs so I just hard boiled them.

To hard boil, I do what my mother told me. I set the eggs in a little salted water and let the water come to a boil. As soon as the water comes to a boil, I switch it off and let the eggs sit covered in the boiled  for 8 minutes. This method always ensures perfect hard boiled eggs for me.

This salad is perfect as a side for any dish. I paired the salad with a roasted lemon and garlic flavored salmon (for me) and America’s test kitchen’s pan roasted chicken recipe (for V). Both V and I enjoyed this meal, and I hope you do too.

5.0 from 2 reviews

Couscous Salad with Chickpeas, Roasted Tomatoes and Boiled Eggs

 

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Author: adapted from What Katie Ate

Serves: 3

Ingredients

• 4 small vine ripened tomatoes, quartered (you can use fresh plum tomatoes also)
• Olive oil, for cooking
• ¾ cup couscous
• butter, to cook couscous
• 1 cup boiled chickpeas (or you can use a can of chickpeas)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp roasted ground cumin
• 2 tbsp pepitas
• a pinch fennel seeds
• 2 large eggs, hard boiled and halved lengthwise
• handful basil leaves

For the yogurt dressing:

• ½ cup plain yogurt
• 1 tsp roasted cumin powder
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
• freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 315 F. Drizzle the tomatoes with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and roast for 1 - 1½ hours, until shriveled and caramelized.
2. Cook couscous according to package directions. Once cooked, fluff with a fork and season with salt and pepper.
3. Heat a tsp of olive oil. Add the chickpeas, pepitas, fennel seeds and ground cumin, salt and pepper and fry on medium low heat, for ten minutes, tossing often. The chickpeas should become golden and slightly crispy on the outside.
4. Add the chickpea mix and roasted tomatoes to the couscous. Gently toss to combine.
5. Whisk the ingredients listed under dressing in a bowl.
6. To serve, scatter the eggs and basil on top of the couscous salad. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and serve.

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