I love tiny pasta. Orzo and couscous are my favorites; they are easy to make and extremely versatile. I recently bought some Israeli couscous (the kind that look like little pearls) in the bulk foods section at Central market, but I’d never made it before. Last weekend, I needed a quick side dish to go with our grilled porkchops and decided that a couscous salad would be perfect. A quick online search revealed that Israeli couscous can be cooked just like orzo and either absorb all the liquid or be cooked in liquid and then drained. I chose the absorb method, as it seems less wasteful.

First, I toasted about a cup of couscous and a handful of chopped onion  in a little olive oil, until the couscous was a little brown and the onions were a little soft. Then I added enough vegetable stock (the homemade stuff we made from veggie scraps) to just cover the couscous and added the same amount of stock as dry couscous, so another 1 cup of stock, and let it simmer until the broth was absorbed (about 10-15 minutes).

When the couscous was done cooking, I spread it out on a foil-lined sheet pan to cool and chopped some veggies to add to the salad: cucumber, tomato and red pepper. When it was cooled, I threw the couscous and veggies into a bowl, added some salt and pepper, the juice from half a lemon and a splash of olive oil and stirred them all together, then let it chill in the fridge for a bit. This made a great, fresh-tasting side dish with dinner that night.

Two days later, I was home alone and didn’t feel like cooking and hadn’t set anything out from the freezer to make for dinner. But I had a lot of the couscous salad leftover, so I added a can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed) and some crumbled feta cheese and voila, instant dinner! The following, day I was still home alone, but willing to cook.  I sauteed a chicken sausage, sliced it up, and added it to the remaining couscous salad, which I had warmed up for this meal. It made a very quick, easy and tasty lunch.

The addition of chickpeas and cheese bulked up the salad, which made it stretch farther, and added some protein, extra flavor and texture.  Even though I didn’t plan for more than a side dish, I was able to create three healthy and delicious meals from this simple salad. As a result, I saved both time and money! My laziness does occasionally pay off…