Deck Party Couscous Salad

This is a quick, cheap and fresh salad to whip up in the last minute before a cookout or to bring for a picnic. It is the perfect side dish to go with grilled meat, fish or other barbeque items, and very colorful too.

Ingredients:

• Pint of cherry or grape tomatoes,
• 1 cup of raisins,
• 2 cups of couscous,
• 1 cup of carrots
• 1/2 cup of sliced almonds
• 2 TBS of chopped fresh parsley
• 1 cup of diced apple
• Olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper

Other ingredients you could add/ substitute into if you don't have the ones above handy:
Chickpeas, pine nuts or walnuts (instead of almonds), pear (instead of apple), onion, cramberries
(instead of raisins), black olives, basil (instead of parsley), peas, corn.

The amounts are completely eye-balled, you can add more or less of each of the above. This is the type of recipe you really can't screw up, so play it by ear and experiment as you go along to get a nice mixture of colors, tastes and textures.

1. Dice the carrots into small pieces and boil them until they are a bit soft but not so much that they fall apart.
2. While the carrots are cooking, make the couscous. This usually only takes five minutes.
3. Add some oil to a pan and toast the sliced almonds slightly with a bit of salt.
4. Make a dressing with the olive oil, vinegar, salt and parsley to taste.
5. Once the couscous and the carrots have cooled, toss all the ingredients together, mix them around and drizzle the dressing in. 
6. Taste, and add some more salt if needed.
7. Ideally, chill in the refrigerator for an hour or so, but if you're in a rush, it's perfectly delicious at room temperature.
8. This dish will keep nicely for a few days, so double or triple the batch.