This autumn couscous salad with butternut squash, fennel, dried cranberries, and sage makes a great light and healthy lunch, but would also make a great side dish.
Course Salad
Cuisine Mediterranean
Keyword couscous salad
Prep Time 35 minutesminutes
Cook Time 30 minutesminutes
Total Time 1 hourhour5 minutesminutes
Servings 6-8 as a side dish
Calories 402kcal
Ingredients
8ouncesIsraeli or Pearl couscous, about 1 ½ cups
1tablespoonolive oil
1shallot, diced, about 2 tablespoons
1fennel bulb, diced, about 1 cup
2 ½cupsbutternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced
3tablespoonsfresh sage, chopped
¾cupdried cranberries
½cupdried currants
1 ½cupsapple juice, (reserving ¼ cup of the cooked juice)
¼cupcanola oil
3tablespoonsred wine vinegar
kosher salt and pepper
1tablespoonparsley, chopped
Instructions
Bring water to boil in a medium size saucepan, add couscous and bring back to a boil then lower to medium and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes. Drain in a colander, but do not rinse. Set aside in a mixing bowl to cool.
Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Add the shallot and cook for 1 minute, stirring often. Add diced fennel and cook for another 5 minutes or until fennel softens. Add butternut squash, sage, cranberries, currants and apple juice and cook for 15 minutes or until butternut squash has softened and almost all of the apple juice has cooked down. Season with kosher salt and pepper.Transfer the mixture to the bowl with the couscous, reserving about ¼ cup of the apple juice for the vinaigrette.
In a small bowl, mix the reserved apple juice, canola oil, red wine vinegar and more salt and pepper to taste. Add to the coucous with the parsley and stir. Let coucous sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes for flavors to meld before serving. Add more sage if desired.