Pearl Couscous Salad with Charred Peaches
I teamed up with Harris Farm to bring to you a delicious veggie filled, vegan Christmas lunch spread.
As much as I love (too much) crackling and seafood at Christmas, I love these veggie filled recipes to keep the balance and to be sure I don’t fill up before we serve my Great Aunty Dot’s Christmas pudding.
Next up in the vegan Christmas lunch recipe haul, we have a Pearl Couscous Salad with Charred Peaches. This salad is packed full of herbs, you’ve got them all, go crazy. Then we have some peaches which are pretty much the definition of happiness in December, in my opinion. Those sweet sweet stone fruit smells get me and send me straight back to beach days, sitting on my boogie board eating a peach I’d most likely dropped in the sand and my mum had to wash for me. We’d be in the water for hours, come up for water and sustenance then straight back in.
This salad is a mix of crunchy, herby, nutty and sweet. All good things in life. It looks pretty and provides a bit of freshness and palate cleansing from all the goodness of the rest of your Christmas spread, whatever you choose it to be.
Pearl Couscous Salad with Charred Peaches. Recipe by Lunch Lady Lou. Photography/styling by Bonnie Coumbe.
Ingredients
- 1 cup pearl couscous
- 6 peaches
- 6 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 bunch broccolini
- 300 g green beans
- 1 cos lettuce or butter lettuce
- 1 cup rocket
- Scant ½ cup mint leaves
- ¼ cup chives roughly chopped
- Scant ½ cup basil leaves
- 1 block vegan herb garlic boursin cheese
- Pepper
Instructions
- Cook pearl couscous to packet instructions.
- Heat a griddle pan (or a frying pan) on medium heat.
- Use a knife to split peaches in half and remove seeds. Coat peaches in 1 tablespoon olive oil and place flesh side down in pan. Cook for 5 minutes, flip and cook for another 5. Put peaches to side.
- Clean out pan and bring back to a medium heat with another 1 tablespoon olive oil. Chop ends off broccolini and charr in pan for 3 minutes each side. Don’t crowd your pan, broccolini needs to be in a single layer, you may need to do this in 2 batches.
- Clean out pan and bring back to medium heat with another 1 tablespoon olive oil. Top and tail green beans and add to pan with garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes, shaking pan every 30 seconds. Don’t crowd your pan, you may need to do this in 2 batches.
- On a platter, scatter with cos lettuce and rocket. In a bowl mix together pearl couscous, broccolini, beans, mint, chives and basil. Mix well to combine. Pour over your lettuce layer.
- Top with peaches and torn herb garlic boursin.
- Drizzle with remaining oil and salt and pepper.
Check out the rest of the Vegan Christmas recipe line up I created for Harris Farm:
I’m not sure which recipe is my favourite, but the Herb Stuffed Tomatoes have rendered a few lucky taste testers speechless. On shoot day one of the Harris Farm staff said it smelled like his mum’s cooking – which he declared was the biggest compliment he could give as she’s the best cook. I’ll take it all.
The Raw Chocolate Tart with Christmas Pudding Crumb I made and drove 6 hours to a friends house. We sat in her new house, at the kitchen table, with endless cups of tea and pieces of this cake. It’s rich and deluxe. Add some brandy or rum for a real Christmas feel, although I’ll be honest and say I’m a fan of it without the booze.
