Couscous salad in a jar – picnic recipe

It’s picnic time!! sandwiches, cupcakes, wraps…and what about a couscous salad in a jar? you will just need to open the lid and scoop out the salad. You can even attach a fork&spoon to the jar with a ribbon or an elastic to create ready-to-eat portions.

The couscous is a very versatile kind of semolina (wheat). Perfect with a hot stew in winter (the Moroccan way) or cold in a fresh and light salad for the summer. Today I decided to mix it with gorgeous seasonal tomatoes, basil, some good mozzarella, feta cheese, some few tablespoons of good quality Extra virgin oil of olive. To add some fun I “colored” the couscous letting it cook in some tomato sauce and I layered the ingredients in the jar to get a stripes beautiful effect!

How to proceed:

Add 1 cup of water to a medium size sauce pan. Turn the heat on at medium and let the water boil.

Meanwhile in a blender mix 3/4 of the chopped cherry tomatoes (you want to keep some of them chopped for the final layering) with the basil, some salt and the extra virgin oil of olive. A nice red lightly creamy liquid will result.

  

Let’s go back to our boiling pan. Add the tomato mix to the water, stir and add the couscous. Turn off the heat and mix. Cover with a lid and let the couscous cook and grow for 5 minutes.

    

While the couscous is resting you can chop the mozzarella in cubes and the feta cheese or any other ingredient you might like to add to your salad (black olives, cappers, anchovies, ham, corn….)

Remove the lid and stir the couscous with a fork: you want to break any possible lump. Let it cool down.

Take a mason jar and start playing with layers of different ingredients: couscous, mozzarella, feta cheese, chopped cherry tomatoes. Keep going with the layers up until the jar is filled. Close the jar with a lid and store in the fridge. You’re ready for the picnic!!

One thing that I really appreciate about this recipe is that you can personalize every mason jar using different ingredients considering each family member taste. Just to give you an example: my husband’s jar has 2 layers of diced ham and 2 extra layers of mozzarella 🙂

For my kids I use small size mason jars, considering their smaller appetite!

  

 

<a href=”https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7922233/?claim=j3ypdwb5q9h”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>