Couscous Salad — Something Cold to Set on the Table When the Day Is Long

Mid-July and the heat is ferocious — the kind of Long Island heat that turns the air into something you can chew, thick and wet and relentless. The kitchen is unbearable after noon, which means all my serious cooking happens before ten a.m., and the afternoons are for cold food and air conditioning and the particular torpor of a summer that has no destination, no vacation, no relief from the routine of quarantine. I have not left this neighborhood in four months. The farthest I have been from my house is the farm stand on Merrick Road, which is 1.3 miles, which I know because I measured it, because measuring the distance to the farm stand is the kind of thing you do when you have lost perspective on everything else.

I made gazpacho — the cold Spanish tomato soup that Sylvia would not have recognized but which I learned to make in the 1990s from a colleague at school, a Spanish teacher named Carmen who gave me the recipe with the instructions, "No cooking. The tomato does the work." Sylvia would have been skeptical of a soup that requires no cooking, because Sylvia believed that cooking required heat and effort and the willingness to stand at the stove until the thing was done, but Carmen's gazpacho is delicious — raw tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, garlic, olive oil, sherry vinegar, bread — all pureed into something cold and bright and alive, and I make it every summer now and think of Carmen, who retired in 2015 and moved to Spain and who would be pleased to know that her soup is still being made in a Jewish kitchen on Long Island, which is a cultural migration that neither Spain nor Long Island anticipated.

David sent me an article about COVID and Alzheimer's — the elevated risk, the complications, the things I already know but which seeing in print makes more real and more frightening. I read the article. I filed the fear in the place where I keep the fears, which is getting crowded. I washed my hands for the ten thousandth time. I made the gazpacho. The soup was cold and good and the kitchen was hot and difficult and the day was long and Marvin was quiet and the article was in my head and the fear was in my chest and the soup was on the table and I ate it. You eat. You continue. You wash your hands again.

Carmen’s gazpacho was the anchor of that afternoon, but a bowl of cold soup can only carry so far — there is still the matter of something to eat alongside it, something that requires no heat, no standing over a stove, nothing that adds a single degree to a kitchen that is already past enduring. This couscous salad is that dish: it goes cold, it goes together quickly in the morning hours before the heat takes over, and it sits on the table next to the gazpacho like a small act of resistance against a summer that will not let up. Both dishes ask the same thing of you — that you keep making food, keep eating, keep going.

Couscous Salad

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 5 min | Total Time: 20 min (plus chilling) | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups couscous
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water or vegetable broth
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 English cucumber, diced
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 1/4 red onion, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• Black pepper to taste
• 2 ounces crumbled feta cheese (optional)

Instructions

1. Hydrate the couscous. Place couscous and salt in a large heatproof bowl. Pour boiling water or broth over the top, stir once, and cover tightly with a plate or plastic wrap. Let stand 5 minutes, then fluff thoroughly with a fork. Spread onto a sheet pan to cool to room temperature, about 15 minutes.
2. Make the dressing. In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, and cumin until emulsified. Season with black pepper.
3. Combine. Transfer cooled couscous to a large serving bowl. Add the cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper, red onion, olives, parsley, and mint. Pour the dressing over the top and toss well to coat every grain.
4. Chill. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to meld. The salad improves with an hour or two of chilling.
5. Finish and serve. Just before serving, taste and adjust seasoning with additional lemon juice, salt, or pepper as needed. Scatter feta over the top if using. Serve cold alongside gazpacho or on its own.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 245 | Protein: 7g | Fat: 9g | Carbs: 35g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 310mg