It’s official, cauliflower is my new favourite vegetable (sorry butternut squash!). It may not be the most vibrant of vegetables but when it comes to versatility, it takes the cake.
Last week the market had cauliflower on sale so I bought some with the intention of perfecting my cauliflower pizza crust. 4 dishes later I was out of cauliflower and still hadn’t started on the pizza crust. Instead I came up with 4 completely different recipes, Chinese fried rice, a jalapeno & bacon bread, cheesy baked cauliflower (dairy free!) and this couscous salad, all of which use cauliflower as the main ingredient. It’s the chameleon of all veggies!
I’m sure a lot of you are rolling your eyes as you read this, how closely can cauliflower really resemble couscous? Trust me on this. It looks like couscous, it tastes like couscous and when blindfolded you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference. Impressed? Well here is the best part, it has 95% less calories per cup (592 calories vs 25 calories) and is packed full of nutrients.
This is a fantastic salad to eat for lunch or for dinner with a side of chicken or fish. Its fresh and light and can last in the fridge for up to 4 days making it ideal for a packed lunch. You can play around with the ingredients, adding raisins instead of apricots or using other vegetables you have in your fridge, I think butternut squash or eggplant would work well. Try out this salad and let me know what you think! I’d recommend stocking up on cauliflower because I have a lot of delicious cauliflower based recipes coming your way!
Here are a few more dishes using cauliflower couscous:
- Greek Salad with Cauliflower Couscous
- Moroccan Chicken Skewers with Cauliflower Couscous
- Herby Couscous Stuffed Eggplant Rolls
- Radicchio, Butternut Squash & Dried Cherry Cauliflower Couscous Salad
If you make this recipe let me know in the comment section below, I would love to hear what you think or take a photo and tag me (@everylastbite_) on Instagram, I love seeing your photos!
Moroccan Cauliflower Couscous Salad
Ingredients
- 3 cups cauliflower rice approx 1 small cauliflower
- 1/2 cups sliced almonds toasted
- 2 zucchini
- 2 bell peppers red, yellow or orange
- 1/4 cup dried apricots
- 1/2 red onion finely diced
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- extra virgin olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- salt & pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 175 degrees celsius
- Cut the zucchini and peppers into thin strips. Lightly brush with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the vegetables begin to soften (or you can grill the vegetables on your barbecue). Once the grilled vegetables have cooked, set aside and allow to cool
- Cut the cauliflower into large chunks and place in a food processor or hand held blender. The cauliflower will break into little bits within 10 seconds, continue blending until it has all broken down to the same size and should resemble couscous. Depending on the size of your machine you may need to do this in batches. Place the couscous in a bowl
- Dice the apricots and cut the roasted vegetables into small pieces approximately the size of a fingernail. Add the apricots, parsley, roasted vegetables, red onion and sliced almonds to the cauliflower and stir to evenly combine.
- Toss the salad with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper and serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Tried This Recipe?
Leave a comment below and let us know how it was!
Delicious! And you are right, I could not tell it was caulflower and not couscous!!
I discovered your website last week whilst browsing – WOW! So far I’ve made this salad – absolutely delicious! We are trying out a variety of your recipes this week for dinner – so excited! Thanks for the great recipes, makes coming up with healthy recipes so much easier!
Thanks Bianca! Thats so nice to hear! I’m glad you enjoyed this salad, let me know how the others go!
Pesto Zoodles were a winner too! Green Thai Curry tomorrow night and thoroughly enjoying the Granola as a change from eggs every morning. Winning 🙂
2/2! So happy to hear it was another success! In case you are looking for a filling salad, the Thai Beef Salad is one of my faves, and I may be biased but the paella is really good as well 🙂