Our Favorite Lemon Herb Couscous Salad
How to make light and healthy couscous salad with a simple lemon vinaigrette, cucumber and herbs. Jump to the Easy Lemon and Herb Couscous Salad Recipe or read on to see our tips for making it.
Watch Us Make The Recipe
It really doesn’t get much fresher than this. We love this light salad — it doubles as a side, can be the main event or works well topped with grilled chicken or Adam’s favorite, shrimp! With lots of texture from crisp cucumber, sweet tomatoes, crunchy nuts, and raisins, this is certainly one of our favorites. You can even make it ahead of time. By the way, we love this salad so much we created spin-off using orzo pasta. If you love this salad, take a look at our Lemon Orzo Pasta Salad with Cucumbers and Olives.
How to Make Couscous Salad with Lemon, Herbs and Crisp Veggies
Serve this salad warm or cold. You even swap or add your favorite fresh ingredients. We love crisp cucumbers, tomatoes, and golden raisins.The base of the salad is made with Israeli (or pearl) couscous.
What is Israeli Couscous?
Israeli Couscous is a little different from what most of us think of when we hear couscous. It’s in the shape of small round pearls made from semolina flour and wheat and is very similar to pasta in its texture. In fact, you actually cook it in boiling water for about 10 minutes then drain. Easily use in place of rice, or even in place of pastas in soups or salads.
If you cannot find Israeli Couscous, you can substitute with a small pasta shape such as orzo or use regular couscous.
The Secret for the Most Flavorful Salad
To make the best, most flavorful salad, add the vinaigrette to the couscous while it is still warm. We do the same with pasta salad and even potato salad.
Since the couscous is warm, it soaks up all the flavor from the dressing. Speaking of the dressing, this is one of my go-to recipes. We love keeping this salad light and fresh, so our favorite dressing to toss the couscous in is a light lemony vinaigrette. It’s simple — and great to toss with warm veggies like carrots or as a light salad dressing. All you need is Dijon mustard, honey, lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oil. Just whisk together until creamy, and then season with salt and pepper and you’re done.
Once the couscous is dressed, it’s up to you for what else you add – we love diced tomato, crisp cucumber, lots of fresh herbs, golden raisins, and crunchy walnuts. [Here’s another couscous salad: Lemony Arugula Salad with Couscous, Cucumbers and Feta! The salad is simple, fast and tastes like it came from a fancy restaurant.]
Make Ahead Tips
This is delicious when eaten straight away, but you can also make the salad, cover it and refrigerate for up to 4 hours. This way all the flavors marry and mingle, making for an even more delicious salad. If you are planning to make a day or two ahead of time, keep the tomatoes and walnuts separate until you’re ready to serve. This way they will remain crisp.
More Easy Salads
- Fresh and Easy Cucumber Salad with a sweet and tangy dressing made with vinegar, a little sugar, and Dijon mustard.
- Creamy Cucumber Salad has a tzatziki-inspired dressing made with Greek yogurt, vinegar, fresh lemon, garlic, and dill.
- Lemony White Bean Salad with Prosciutto has creamy white beans, salty prosciutto, parmesan cheese, peppery arugula, and a punchy lemon dressing.
- Seriously Good Quinoa Salad is ultra-flavorful and satisfying quinoa salad recipe is packed with superfoods.
- Or try making your own dressing! Here’s our recipe for Caesar dressing, a creamy blue cheese and my favorite honey mustard dressing.
Recipe updated, originally posted March 2012. Since posting this in 2012, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne
Our Favorite Lemon Herb Couscous Salad
- PREP
We love this light couscous salad — it doubles as a side, can be the main event or works well topped with grilled chicken or Adam’s favorite, shrimp! With lots of texture from crisp cucumber, sweet tomatoes, crunchy nuts and raisins, this is certainly one of our favorites. You can even make it ahead of time. See the notes section below for our tips.
Makes approximately 8 (1 cup) servings
You Will Need
1 1/2 cups dried Israeli couscous, also called pearl couscous
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 to 4 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice, depending on taste
1 medium English cucumber, diced
1 large tomato, diced
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh herbs; use any combination of fresh parsley, cilantro, basil, dill, or mint
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1/4 cup raisins, we love golden raisins
Directions
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add couscous and cook until tender, 8-10 minutes. Drain.
While the couscous cooks, in a large bowl, whisk the oil, mustard, honey, lemon zest, lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add the drained couscous to the dressing and mix well.
Stir in the cucumber, tomato, herbs, walnuts and raisins. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and/or pepper as needed. Enjoy warm or cover then refrigerate until cool, about 1 hour.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- If you cannot find Israeli Couscous, you may substitute with a small pasta shape such as orzo or use regular couscous.
- To toast walnuts, add to a dry pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently until the nuts turn golden brown and become fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes.
- Make-Ahead: This salad is delicious when eaten straight away, but you can also make the salad, cover it and refrigerate for up to 4 hours. This way all the flavors marry and mingle, making for an even more delicious salad. If you are planning to make a day or two ahead of time, keep the tomatoes and walnuts separate until you’re ready to serve. This way they will remain crisp.
- Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values. We assumed 1/4 teaspoon of added salt.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Nutrition Per Serving: Serving Size 1 cup / Calories 219 / Protein 5 g / Carbohydrate 29 g / Dietary Fiber 2 g / Total Sugars 4 g / Total Fat 9 g / Saturated Fat 1 g / Cholesterol 0 mg / Sodium 160 mg
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I loved this salad! I had to make a few changes based on what I had at home. I didn’t have lemon but I had lime so I used the juice of one lime and also added in some balsamic vinegar. For fresh herbs I have chives and dill, which I used a ton of. I used a couple small tomatoes and one English cucumber. I also crushed two cloves of garlic with a garlic press and stirred that in. Tons of pepper and salt. I didn’t have any walnuts or raisins but I’ll definitely add that in next time. Even without those changes the salad was so good.
Loved this but increased the tomato and cukes and doubled up on the lemon we like it tart.
Love the recipe and video! Will try it soon. Take care, you guys.
Hands-down the best couscous I have ever tasted. Refreshing, delicious, perfect with salmon.
Am using this as a healthy alternative with my veggies, great taste!
Not sure if this is too late — I just made this recipe, and it was divine! I added some chickpeas and diced red pepper, for good measure. That vinaigrette is really wonderful. Thanks so much!
I ended up making this for 16 people as a side dish, and it was a huge hit yesterday. I made it the day before, since I was cooking up alot of other dishes and it was fabulous. I just squeezed a little fresh lemon over it the next day to give it some freshness. It was delicious!
Nice. Great idea to liven it up the next day with extra lemon juice!
If you are making this for 16 people – can you just multiply the ingredients by 4? Usually you can do that but with the couscous I’m thinking the proportion of water might not work?
Yep, you just want a larger pot to cook the couscous — or do it in batches.
was wondering if you could substitute quinoa for the couscous… looks very delicious!
Sure! That’s a great idea.
Lovely, fresh salad. Will make often. Thanks for sharing.
Delish! I was snowed in and didn’t want to go to the store so I used what I had..cilantro…sautéed celery, onions, broccoli (no cucumbers here) and added minced garlic.. Didn’t use nuts or raisins because my husband is on WW… So good! Thanks for sharing!
WOW! This is what i have been looking for a long time.Easy to cook and tastes great.
I want this in my fridge ALL the time!! Rarely review recipes I print…just make them and never give credit where it is due…shame,shame…but this salad is so scrumptious it would be a sin not to tell the world about it. I was looking for something special (and pretty) to make as a side for my mom’s Mother’s Day dinner. We had bbq chicken, 2 different couscous salads, delicious blanched green beans- everyone kept coming back for more of the Lemon & Herb Couscous salad! Could not get enough. We served it chilled and it was absolutely just as refreshing as the picture. I always go to Publix and pick up the “Near East” pearl couscous for this recipe and then follow the Gallaghers’ method verbatim. Cannot wait for heirloom tomatoes to come in and complete this ensemble. Bought fresh cucumbers and corn from the market (peaches n’ cream) and used cilantro and dill for the herbs. Left off the raisins and walnuts. I like to serve this cold- so the pearl couscous is much better for that- in general, when I think of couscous, I think of pearl couscous- the regular kind just seems like quinoa to me. OUTSTANDING. For the past two summers, I have made a black bean, red pepper, avocado, white corn salad with a vinaigrette that is delicious but needed a change and was searching through all these fresh summer recipes that just weren’t doing it for me until I found this one! Bravo Gallaghers. We have made it every week since! It’s our staple this summer (and certainly for many to come!) Thank you!!
Hi, Joanne! Just to let you know that this dish made the list of the 25 mouthwatering dishes from different blogs in From Brazil To You…Cheers!
Thanks!
This looks so refreshing!! I have everything but the raisins. I want to make this!