Sunday, November 9, 2008

Vegetarian Pesto Couscous Salad




Ingredients:

Mozzarella Cheese
Fresh Basil
2 Avocados,
Any kind of Lettuce you prefer
2 Tomatoes
Balsamic Vinegar
Olive oil
Kalamata Olives
A chunk of Parmesan Cheese (not in picture!)
1 bell pepper
Couscous
Salt
Black Pepper
A clove of Garlic.
A half red Onion

Vegetarian Pesto Couscous Salad recipe picture 1


Step 1:

Now, begin with the lettuce and basil, put them in a bowl and rinse under water.

Vegetarian Pesto Couscous Salad recipe picture 2


Step 2:

Cut the lettuce into smaller parts and put it away in a bowl.

Take your tomatoes and cut them into smaller pieces, throw into the bowl.

Vegetarian Pesto Couscous Salad recipe picture 3


Step 3:

Making couscous is easy, just remember, one part couscous and two parts water. In this case we used about 1 decilitre couscous and 1,9 decilitres of water.
Bring the water to a boil, add some olive oil and salt, put the couscous into the boiling water and turn off the plate.

Before you gently stir the couscous into the water, it should look something like this.

Vegetarian Pesto Couscous Salad recipe picture 4

Step 4:

Put a lid on your casserole and wait for about five minutes, your couscous should now be ready to put in the salad.

Vegetarian Pesto Couscous Salad recipe picture 5


Step 5:

Take that red onion and slice cut or dice into a preferred size. I like mine medium sized and in pretty triangular shapes.

Vegetarian Pesto Couscous Salad recipe picture 6

Step 6:

Cut avocados in halves, take out the pit, and gently peel them, this could get a bit messy.

Vegetarian Pesto Couscous Salad recipe picture 7

Step 7:

Cut the avocado into smaller pieces.

Vegetarian Pesto Couscous Salad recipe photos 8


Step 8:

Get the bell pepper and chop it like there’s no tomorrow!

Vegetarian Pesto Couscous Salad recipe photos 9


Step 9:

Put your neatly chopped bell pepper into the bowl.

step-by-step recipe photos 10

Step 10:

Chop one clove of garlic and toss it in with the rest of the salad.

If you made everything correct, the salad should look like this.

Vegetarian Pesto Couscous Salad recipe photos 11


Step 11:

Get that mozzarella, chop it up and put it in the bowl, which by now should look something like this.

Vegetarian Pesto Couscous Salad recipe photos 12


Step 12:

Now for the olives, Kalamata olives have pits in them so you have to cut around the olive,

Vegetarian Pesto Couscous Salad cooking image 13


Step 13:

And then firmly squeeze out the pits. If you’re lazy you could just throw the olives in as they are. Either way, throw the olives in with the rest of the salad.

cooking image 14


Step 14:

Remember that basil? This is the fun part of the salad goodness!

Take the basil and put it in a blender-suitable container like a measuring cup (or if you have it, a stationary blender) Blend the basil along with shredded Parmesan cheese. Add olive oil, salt and black pepper. Mix it good.

cooking image 15


Step 15:

The pesto is ready when it looks something like this.

You’ll need about a small bush or so of fresh basil and a chunk of Parmesan to make pesto for two. If you find this way to hard or boring, you can always buy pesto in the supermarket.

cooking image 16


Step 16:

Mix the salad.

cooking image 17


Step 17:

Add more olive oil, salt and black pepper.

cooking image 18


Step 18:

Sprinkle it with balsamic vinegar.

cooking image 19


Step 19:

Add your delicious pesto sauce to the salad. Enjoy!



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