Hello, cold February. All I want to do is eat pizza, bagels, and ice cream. I wish that I could say that’s a winter thing, but if led to my own devices I would enjoy those foods 24/7, 365 days a year. Instead, I’m going to try to focus on creating and finding new healthy foods that I enjoy just as much, like this salad.
I’m calling this a salad but I’m not sure it’s really one because there is no lettuce going on here. I do have a lot of fresh herbs to give it that green punch. I’ve loaded this bowl of goodness with chickpeas, cashews, roasted carrots, couscous, hearts of palm, olives, pepperoncini peppers, and topped it with homemade ranch dressing. Everything together creates a delicious harmony.
Honestly, the stars of this dish are the roasted carrots and dressing. In fact, my husband ate the roasted carrots by themselves and was asking for more. I recommend baking up more carrots than the recipe calls for so that you have leftovers to whip up this salad in minutes on week day for lunch… or in case your spouse eats all the leftovers. 😉
Roasted Carrots and Couscous Salad Recipe
(Makes 2 servings, but easy to multiply to however much you want)
Ingredients:
- 2 big carrots
- 1/2 tablespoon olive
- sprinkling of salt
- sprinkling of pepper
- 1/2 cup uncooked couscous
- 1/2 cup chickpeas
- 1/2 cup hearts of palm, chopped
- 1/4 cup green olives, sliced
- 2 to 3 pepperoncini, sliced
- 1/4 cup cashews, chopped
- sprinkling of chopped fresh green onions
- sprinkling of chopped fresh parsley
- sprinkling of chopped fresh dill
- homemade ranch dressing
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Peel the carrots and slice them on a diagonal into 1/3 inch thick slices (cut the fatter end in half if they seem too big to eat in one bite).
- Place all of the cut carrot into a baking sheet, add the olive oil, salt, and pepper, and toss everything together so that it’s all well coated with the oil. Spread everything into an even layer, trying to ensure they aren’t touching each other. (Keeping them separate will let them brown more easily.)
- Bake them for 30 minutes, or until the carrots are fork tender.
- While the carrots are cooking, cook the couscous according to the directions on the box and then set it aside.
- To plate each salad, add the cooked couscous, top with the cooked carrots, chickpeas, sliced hearts of palm, green olives, pepperoncini, cashews, and chopped green onions, parsley, dill.
- Then top each salad with some ranch dressing and mix everything together.
Source: Tina’s Chic Corner
