Mexican Summer Fresh Couscous – Vegan + Gluten-free

I’m sick of winter, how about you? I think we should all get together  and have a good little chat with Mother Nature regarding the terms of her seasons agreement with us. In fact, I think the new seasons should go something like this: summer for 8 months, fall for 3 months and winter for 1 month. Ya, that would be great! Just enough winter for us to get in a decent amount of fun winter sports, build a few snowmen, have a white Christmas and then, BAM! Summer again. That would be the life!

While my plan seems so much better than the weather we have right now, and admittedly, it is starting to resemble spring here in our part of Ontario, somehow I think it would be a tough sell to the lovely Mother Nature. So today, I’m sharing a little recipe with you that will at least make you feel like you’re sitting on a patio somewhere, a nice iced cocktail in your hand, the sun beaming down on you and this lovely dish in front of you, about to be enjoyed. This Mexican Summer Fresh Couscous is the perfect solution to any winter blues you may still be experiencing, guaranteed to have you reminiscing of the good ‘ole days of summer in no time. And the best part? This dish needs only 8 ingredients and takes no time to throw together!

About a month ago, my husband and I vacationed in the beautiful Mayan Riviera of Mexico and this salad was one of my favourite things that I ate while there.

I loved it so much, I went back for seconds…and then thirds – but it’s so light and refreshing that you don’t even need to feel guilty about eating it!

As soon as I had my first bite, I immediately knew that I had to make my own version of it at home. I quickly jotted down the key ingredients, noting all the simple, refreshing flavours and stashed it away so that I could experiment with my own version when we returned from our vacation. I’m happy to announce that my first stab at this produced crowd-pleasing results! This Mexican Summer Fresh Couscous, is light, refreshing, hydrating, sweet, tangy and summery. A perfect home run, if you ask me. In fact, I whipped up a batch of this for dinner with a good friend of mine last night and she raved about it the entire time!

One of my favourite things about this dish, other than the amazing flavour, is the visual impact that it has – I mean, would you look at those colours! I read once that reds, oranges and yellows are all colours that invoke hunger in a person – makes sense if you think about the advertising colours of fast-food companies like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King. Thankfully, this dish is much healthier than anything you would find at any one of these big fast-food chains, but the principle remains: all the rich, vibrant colours in this dish really do make you hungry just from looking at it! Don’t believe me? Here’s a few more shots of this Mexican Summer Fresh Couscous for good measure.

See what I mean? I bet you’re starving now, aren’t you?

What’s that? You’d really like the recipe? Well, okay…but only cause you asked super nice.

I hope you enjoy this Mexican Summer Fresh Couscous as much as I did. I would love to see your own take on this recipe – tag your posts on Instagram with #glutenfreeveganpantry so I can see how yours turned out.

Lots of love & happy eats,

Savanna

4.5 from 2 reviews

Mexican Summer Fresh Couscous

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

This Mexican Summer Fresh Couscous is light, summery, tangy, refreshing and sweet all mixed into one. Try it yourself to add a little bit of summer into your day.

Author: Savanna @ glutenfreeveganpantry.com

Recipe type: Lunch

Cuisine: Mexican

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• Salad
• 1 red bell pepper, finely diced
• 1 orange bell pepper, finely diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, finely diced
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup strawberries, sliced into segments
• ¼ cup cilantro, chopped
• 3 limes
• Couscous
• 1⅓ cup gluten free couscous
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp vegan margarine or oil of choice

Instructions

1. Couscous
2. Place 2 cups water in medium sauce pan with salt and vegan margarine. Bring to boil. Add 1⅓ cup couscous, cover and remove from heat. Let sit for approximately 5 minutes and then fluff with a fork. Allow to cool by placing into refrigerator while preparing the rest of the salad
3. In large bowl, mix together diced peppers, cranberries, strawberries and cilantro. Juice the three limes and pour over mixture. For extra lime flavour, peel one half of juiced lime and finely dice, adding to salad.
4. Add cooled couscous to salad mixture and stir until all ingredients are mixed together. Place mixed salad back in fridge to cool, at least 10-15 minutes.

Notes

Preparation time does not include the additional 10-15 minutes of cooling needed at end of recipe.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: ¼ of recipe Calories: 346 Fat: 2 Carbohydrates: 73 Sugar: 20 Sodium: 144 Protein: 9

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