I made this for a picnic when it was still nice and sunny out and it was a big hit! Who would have though a couscous and kale salad would get so many comments! I needed something that only used things in my pantry and balcony garden and voila! This was the recipe! I’m not the biggest fan of couscous, but this used up the couscous I had left sitting in a jar AND made me want to buy more! Who knew?! Maybe there’s a couscous fan hiding in me somewhere after all.

Raw Kale Avocado and Chickpea Couscous Salad

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Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups of cups of couscous
  • 1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed
  • 1 large size ripe tomato diced (I used cherry tomatoes)
  • 1 medium onion diced
  • 1 medium avocado diced
  • 1 bunch of kale
  • ½ cup of nutritional yeast
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon powdered garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 large clove garlic minced
  • 5 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 pinch each of black pepper sweet paprika, cayenne pepper, onion powder
  • 1/3 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Instructions
 

  • Make the couscous. Bring two cups of water and one tablespoon olive oil to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat and add the couscous and salt, stir evenly to moisten the couscous. Cover and let sit until the water is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Fluff with a form before adding to the salad.
  • Wash the kale thoroughly. Pull the kale leaves off the stem and discard the stems. Place a few leaves of kale on top of each other, roll them up and begin slicing them into thin strips.
  • Place the couscous, chickpeas, kale, diced tomatoes, onion, minced garlic, and avocado in a large bowl or pot.
  • Pour in the olive oil. Stir the ingredients together and add more olive oil if needed to coat everything well.
  • Add the garlic powder, salt , nutritional yeast, soy sauce, turmeric, black pepper, sweet paprika, cayenne pepper, onion powder and crushed red pepper. Stir again to make sure that everything is well mixed together.
  • Let the salad chill in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to allow the flavors to mingle.
  • Enjoy!

IMG_3142Couscous close up!

The kale and tomatoes are both from my balcony garden!

I still have tomatoes, 3 types of peppers and beans going strong even though it’s getting cold! Half of my kale plants got infested with tons of tiny little bugs, very sad, but I poured boiling water on top of most of them in the dirt, chopped away the infected leaves and moved the unaffected plants away from the infected ones, we’ll see what happens. Besides that my cilantro plant finally stopped having only flowers, the little coriander seeds have fallen and started to yield some leafy cilantro. Once I get back from Dubai I plan to eat that on top of many a bowl of curry or peanut noodles!

What’s your best salad for potlucks and picnics?

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