I shouldn’t have rushed so much taking this photo, but I was sooooo hungry. It’s a variation on a recipe that I saw in Australian Women’s Weekly “Main Course Salads”. (I highly recommend this series of cookbooks - great photos and simple recipes.) The original recipe called for a truckload of couscous and chicken sausage. Finding turkey or chicken sausage at our local grocery store is pretty hit or miss. It seems like they only get a few packages in a week or someone in Centretown is hoarding sausage. Both options are totally possible.

At any rate, we substituted chorizo for the chicken and halved the amount of couscous that the original version called for. The result was this really nice Mediterranean flavoured salad that was a hearty side dish to our personal pizzas.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup couscous
• 3/4 cup chicken stock
• 1 cup sliced green olives
• 4-5 sliced green onions
• mild chorizo (approximately 125g or half a package of the President’s Choice brand chorizo)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• lemon zest
• 1 can of chickpeas (washed and drained)
• 1/4 cup (or more) chopped cilantro

Bring the chicken stock to a boil - add the couscous and remove from heat.  Let sit for five minutes and fluff with a fork.  Meanwhile - slice the chorizo into bite size pieces and toss in a frying pan to crisp up the edges.  Use as much chorizo as you like.  Toss everything into a mixing bowl: couscous, olives, oil, lemon juice, zest, onions, chickpeas and cilantro.  Serve!

Boyfriendly rating: 5/5