Watercress salad with pearl couscous and apple. This easy salad is perfect for quickly putting together at lunch time. You can precook the couscous or use regular couscous which usually only requires a few minutes of cooking. Watercress is slightly bitter and compared with the sweetness of the apple this is a delicious salad.
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Watercress salad with pearl couscous
Whipping up a quick salad for lunch is one of the things I love to do. You can vary endlessly with easy salads and there are not a lot of vegetables that are not suitable for including in a salad. I do usually go for easy fixes though and this watercress salad is one of my new favorites.
Ingredients needed for the watercress salad
You don't need a lot of ingredients to make this salad but I will give you a couple of options below also with possible replacements:
- watercress - if you can't find watercress you can easily replace this with lamb's lettuce or arugula. The flavor is slightly different but those will work as well
- green peas - it's a relatively light salad and adding some peas will give it more body. You can replace the peas with chickpeas or lentiils
- apple - I love adding apple to salads. It gives it extra crunch and also a little bit of sweetness. The apple can be replace with mango cubes or pear.
- pearl couscous - I find the pearl couscous a very different texture to regular couscous but it can be replaced by such. Or use rice, quinoa or spelt instead of the couscous.
Adding chicken or feta
This is a vegan salad but you can further increase the nutritional value by adding some feta or cooked chicken to the salad.
Storage
The watercress salad is best served fresh so I would suggest to make it fresh. That said you can use the separate components and have it ready to go. That means defrosting the frozen peas, cooking the couscous and - possibly - chopping the apple. If you do chop the apple already in advance make sure to sprinkle some lemon juice over the apple and store in an airtight container. Of course peeling an apple should be pretty quick so you can do that later too.
If you love easy lunch salads you might want to try this beetroot salad with blueberries too.
Watercress salad with pearl couscous
Ingredients
- 80 grams pearl couscous
- 50 grams watercress
- 75 grams green peas defrosted
- 1 green apple diced
Dressing:
- 1 tablespoon strong mustard
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon mango vinegar or other fruit vinegar
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook the couscous according to package directions. Drain and allow to cool briefly. Meanwhile, divide the watercress, peas, and apple cubes between two plates. Remove any large stalks from the watercress.
- Make the dressing by mixing the ingredients together well.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Simone says
If you love easy salads, than this is the one for you. It's filling despite the lean ingredients and can easily be adjusted to suit your needs (or the contents of your fridge)