Couscous Salad with Lemon, Arugula, Avocado

This couscous salad is so bright & fun, and not to mention delicious! Easy to throw together, and super healthy.

What You'll Need:

• 1 cup pearl couscous
• 1.5 cups water
• ¼ cup dairy-free yogurt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 avocado, diced
• 2 large handfuls of arugula
• Mint leaves
• Salt
• Lemon zest
• Cracked black pepper

How to Make This Couscous Salad

The best part of this salad is that it is SO easy to make and packed with flavor!

First, Cook the Couscous

Bring 1.5 cups of water to a boil. Salt the water and add 1 cup of couscous. Cook until couscous is soft all the way through. Drain the couscous and rinse thoroughly with cold water in order to cool and remove excess starches. This will help it toss with the arugula without clumping!

Then, Prepare the Salad Toppings

Once the couscous has cooled (and dried), stir in the yogurt and lemon juice, as well as some salt. Let it sit for a few minutes to absorb the yogurt.

At this time, cube your avocado and remove mint leaves from the stems.

Finally, Assemble the Salad

Toss the arugula with the couscous until it is well and evenly combined. Toss in the avocado cubes as well, lightly stirring. Sprinkle with salt, zest the lemon on top of the salad, and top with mint leaves. If you want more lemon flavor, add another squeeze to the top.

Ingredient Substitutions:

This salad is incredibly simple, so it doesn't have many substitutions. However, you could replace couscous with quinoa or rice. Additionally, I think arugula is the best choice, but spinach could be a great alternative!

If you can't get dairy-free yogurt, dairy-free sour cream could work too! Alternatively, try making cashew cream and diluting it with lemon juice and salt. If you can't find either, it would be fine to omit the yogurt entirely. If you do that, I'd suggest adding more lemon juice and salt!

Make it WFPB! (Whole-food, plant-based)

_{WFPB avoids animal products as well as oils, refined sugars and grains, and processed foods.}

This recipe already uses mostly whole ingredients. The only alternative would be to replace the couscous with whole wheat couscous OR quinoa/brown rice.

The salt level could be a bit high for WFPB. If you want it to be salt-free, consider stirring 1 tablespoon of miso paste with 1 tablespoon warm water and then tossing that with the salad.