Prawn and Cous Cous Salad

I’ve been making variations of this dish for about 5 weeks now so maybe it’s about time that I blogged. It’s definitely a go-to weekday dish, maybe Wednesday.  Monday and Tuesday are over with and the weekend is now practically in sight.  Its easy, relatively quick and involves no real actual heavy cooking, just a lot of chopping which I actually find is quite relaxing after a busy day.  I started this dish with quinoa but recently have moved on to cous cous, simply for the fact that I had no quinoa left!  That’s the thing about this dish, its adaptable to whatever you have handy.  I used chicken last week which works well with pomegranate seeds.  I’m actually apprehensive of trying to write down everything that I put into it tonight but what I basically work from is protein (prawn)+carb (quinoa or (cous cous)+ vegetables (everything!)+seed or nuts (pumpkin) + cheese(feta) + fruits (sultanas) fresh herbs (parsley, mint and coriander) but there are so much other little components that up the flavour factor to make it a true taste explosion I’m going to try and write it down!!  I know it seems like a lot but just trust me on this one, make this once and you will make it over and over, it will become one of your trusty mid-week dinners especially in the Summer and it never gets old because you can keep experimenting with the ingredients.  Also don't worry too much about quantiles, I'm just guestimating the exact measures of everything because the beauty of this salad is that you can just throw ingredients in at a whim and it always works!

Ingredients

Large cup of Cous Cous

1 cup of Sultanas

1 tbsp Curry Powder

1 tsp Turmeric

About 25 large pre-cooked King Prawns

3 cloves of garlic

Olive oil

Big handful of Pumpkin seeds

Bif handful of Sunflower seeds

Half a block of Feta Cheese, diced

1 Small Courgette, grated

1 Carrot, grated

1 Yellow Pepper

1 Red Onion

1 Cucumber

1 Punnet of Cherry Tomatoes

3 Sticks of Celery

1 Small Bunch of Fresh Mint, Coriander and Parsley

For the Dressing

Juice and Zest of One Lemon

Salt and Pepper

Olive Oil
1 Tsp Wholegrain Mustard

First get a massive bowl where you will put all the chopped veg, dice them all so they are quite small and the same size.  Grate the courgette and the carrot.  Meanwhile add the turmeric, curry powder and sultanas to the dry cous cous, add an equal measure of boiling water and cover with cling film and set to one side. Finely dice the chilli and add to the bowl, also add the pumpkin and sunflower seeds and chopped feta cheese.  Now to the prawns, crush the garlic and add to a non-stick pan with a good glug of olive oil, add the prawns and cook gently till the prawns are warmed through.  Your cous cous should now be done, fork the grains so they are fluffy and add to the big bowl of everything.  Also add the prawns, oil and garlic, the freshly chopped herbs and dressing.  So there you go; an everything-but- the-kitchen-sink salad, now sit back and lap up the glory.