A 15-minute refreshing summer salad with couscous, kale, chickpeas, juicy pomegranate and filling plantains, topped with homemade dill sauce.

As warmer weather approaches, I’m slowly shifting my meals to lighter and easier ones. Because who wants to spend 3 hours in the kitchen when you can enjoy that beautiful sunny weather, right?

To be completely honest with you I am not a huge fan of salads. Unless it’s something like this, bursting with flavour and yumminess. The good thing about it is it’s packed with nutrients and also, very quick and easy to make.

Have you read my ‘How To Go Vegan’ post?

Today, I will share with you this delicious couscous salad with kale, chickpeas, pomegranate seeds, fried plantain and I will top everything up with creamy dill sauce.

The dill sauce obsession started in my childhood. My mama would prepare dill sauce on Sundays and I was always really excited about it. It was so creamy, so fragrant and I could pour gallons of it on my mash. So I decided to recreate her recipe but make it a bit more healthy. I used cashews instead of plain flour which turned out really well. Quite different actually, as this one is served cold and the other one is served hot but you get the idea 🙂

I was lucky enough to find a whole bunch of fresh dill at my local market. Also, no plastic packaging 🙂 Except for the plastic band but I will reuse it at least a thousand times before it rips and I toss it in the bin.

Now, as always, I will pick one ingredient and share some nutrition facts about it. Today it’s going to be the almighty kale.

Kale

There are several varieties of kale – dinosaur kale or Lacinato, ornamental kale and curly kale (which I will be using in this salad).

All the varieties are highly nutritious which makes kale one of the most nutritious vegetables. It’s packed with vitamin C. But when I say packed I mean that kale supplies more than 70 percent of the recommended daily intake for vitamin C. Amazing, isn’t it? 🙂

Besides vitamin C, kale is also a great source of vitamin B6 and manganese. Vitamin B6 helps the body make melatonin, which is important for your sleep. You can also find many other minerals, including iron, copper and calcium.

Nutritional value (100g)

• Calories: 49 cal
• Protein: 4.3g
• Carbs: 9g
• Fat: 0.9g

Now without further ado, let’s cook!

Couscous kale salad with plantain and dill sauce

Course: Lunch, Dinner

Servings

3

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

A 15-minute refreshing summer salad with juicy pomegranate and filling plantains, topped with homemade dill sauce

Ingredients

• 1 cup couscous (uncooked) *

• 1 can of chickpeas (drained)

• 1 1/2 cup low sodium vegetable stock

• 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds

• 2 handfuls of curly kale

• Plantains**

• 2 tbsp coconut oil

• 1 large plantain (sliced, 2-3cm thick)

• Dill sauce***

• 1/4 cup diced fresh dill

• 1 cup of cashews (presoaked)

• 1 clove mashed garlic

• 1/2 cup water

• juice from 1/2 lemon

• salt to taste

Directions

• In a medium pan bring vegetable stock to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the couscous. Let it steam for 7 mins, covered. When the couscous is finished, use a fork to fluff it up
• Whilst the couscous is preparing, steam the kale for about 5 minutes. Just to soften up a bit but to still keep all the goodies.
  When the kale is done, set aside.
• Plantains
• Heat 2 tbsp of coconut oil in a frying pan.
• Add sliced plantains and fry for about 5 min on each side or until golden.
• Dill sauce
• Add all the ingredients to a blender, except dill. Blend until smooth.
• Transfer the sauce from a blender to a bowl and add chopped dill. Mix well.
• Salad
• Start assembling your salad – in a pasta bowl combine a bit of couscous, kale and chickpeas. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds, top with plantains and add the dill sauce. Feel free to add some chili flakes if desired.

Notes

• *Couscous to liquid ratio: 1 cup of couscous to 1 and a 1/2 cup of water or vegetable stock.
• **Should you wish to avoid the frying process in preparing plantains, you can bake them in the oven for 20 minutes, turning halfway.
• In case you prefer eating the kale raw, use a massage method to soften it up a bit. You basically rub the kale between your hands until you feel it starts to soften up. It will also slightly change its colour to dark green.
• You can use water instead of vegetable broth, but the broth will just give couscous a bit more flavour.
• ***If you prefer your sauce on a sweet side, feel free to add 1/2 tbsp of maple syrup.

Are you a fan of this fruit-veggie combo? What is your favourite?