Make this easy and quick shrimp salad for a picnic or a casual sit-down dinner.–Dot Vartan
Shrimp Couscous Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- For the dressing
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon butter
- One 10-ounce package plain couscous
- 1 pound cooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- One 11-ounce can mandarin oranges, drained and cut into halves
- 1 cup chopped cherry tomatoes, seeds removed
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 1/4 cup minced green onions
Directions
- Make the dressing
- 1. Whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil and cumin in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Make and assemble the salad
- 2. Bring the vegetable broth and butter to a boil in a medium saucepan. Stir in the couscous and cover. Remove from heat; let stand for 5 to 10 minutes or until broth is absorbed.
- 3. Transfer the couscous to a large bowl and fluff with a fork. Cool to room temperature.
- 4. Add the shrimp, oranges, tomatoes, raisins, almonds, and green onions to the cooled couscous and gently mix together.
- 5. Pour the dressing over the salad. Toss to coat.
Tip: Although it looks like a grain, couscous is actually a form of pasta made from steaming and drying cracked durum wheat. Couscous is widely available in the quick-cooking variety that only needs to be soaked in hot water.
Shrimp Couscous Salad Recipe © 2005 Dot Vartan. All rights reserved.
[Howard Rosenberg] This salad looked nice, colorful, with a pleasant mix of contrasting ingredients and the salad itself both crunchy and soft. The dressing was just the right amount, most of it absorbed by the couscous, leaving the cumin distributed nicely over the ingredients. All in all, very good and satisfying.
[Abigale Avey] Home for the holidays, I made this light dish for my parents after three days of rich cheeses, frosted cookies, and prime rib. My mother absolutely loved the recipe and it even garnered a “This is pretty good” from my father, who never comments on food. The sweetness from the golden raisins and mandarin oranges blended beautifully with the earthy aroma of the cumin. This is a great salad to improvise upon; sliced kalamata olives or diced cucumbers are just two variations I considered. As a summer side dish this would work perfectly, but it was also quite filling served as a main course with steamed asparagus; definitely worth a try.
[Dan Kraan] This is a very colourful and festive-looking salad, with lots of sweet and savoury bits. It has a wonderful scent that is hard to resist as it’s being tossed. Use just the slightest touch of your favourite sea salt to enhance the flavours and reserve a little of the shrimp, almonds, and mandarin for garnishing the salad before presentation.