A fresh and typically summer dish, couscous with green beans and zucchini is a very colorful and tasty vegetarian main course, as well as very easy to make. It is a single dish to be served cold, great for picnics, under the beach umbrella, or to enjoy at work. Couscous with green beans and zucchini can also be enriched with other summer vegetables, cherry tomatoes, zucchini flowers, bell peppers, etc…
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Summer
Ingredients
- 7 oz pre-cooked couscous
- 3 medium zucchinis
- 1 lb boiled green beans
- 1 fresh scallions
- to taste basil
- to taste fine salt
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- 10 cherry tomatoes
- to taste green and black olives (pitted)
- to taste coarse salt
Steps
Let’s start preparing the couscous. Boil 1 cup of water in a small saucepan.
Once it reaches a boil, pour in the couscous and stir with a wooden spoon until it absorbs all the water (a few seconds); then let it rest for 5 minutes; finally, fluff it well with a fork and set it aside.
Wash the zucchinis and green beans, remove all the waste and inedible parts. Cut the zucchinis into chunks and break the green beans if they are too long.
Put some water in a pot. When the water starts to boil, add a pinch of coarse salt, bring it back to a boil and add the zucchinis, letting them cook for exactly three minutes (without waiting for the water to boil again), to keep them crunchy. If you prefer them softer, cook them for 5 minutes and no more because, as they cool, they would become mushy.
Drain the zucchinis and immediately add the green beans to the boiling water, cooking them.
Let’s prepare our summer salad. In a large bowl, put the couscous, chopped zucchinis and green beans, cherry tomatoes cut into slices or wedges, a mix of fresh basil and scallions, pitted and chopped olives, salt, and olive oil to taste.
Mix to combine all the ingredients and let our couscous with zucchinis and green beans rest until it’s time to enjoy. This vegetable and couscous salad is excellent, especially the next day.
You can get creative with the ingredients, making always different and tasty vegetable and couscous salads by adding some tuna in oil, pickles, and so on.
You can get creative with the ingredients, making always different and tasty vegetable and couscous salads by adding some tuna in oil, pickles, and so on.
