Pearl couscous salad with chickpeas, chorizo, and warm spices

This is a delicious recipe from the America’s Test Kitchen, The Complete Salad Cookbook. I made this recipe (page 360) for a cookbook club in my area. It states it serves 4 to 6 people, but really as a side dish it serves 8 to 10 in my opinion.

Ingredients

 

1 c pearl couscous
6 oz. Spanish chorizo sausages, cut into ½ inch pieces
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
8 t. extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1/4 t. table salt
1-1/3 c. chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 t. smoked paprika
1/2 t. ground cumin
2 c. canned chickpeas, rinsed and patted dry
2/3 c. chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
1/2 c. raisins, chopped dried apricots, chopped dates, or chopped dried figs
4 t. lemon juice, plus lemon wedges for serving

 I made little chorizo meatballs

   

It took 10 minutes of simmering to cook the couscous mixture.

1. Combine couscous, chorizo, carrots, 2 teaspoons oil, and salt in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until half of grains are golden, about 5 minutes. Stir in broth, paprika, and cumin. Bring to simmer; cover; and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until broth is absorbed, 10 to 15 minutes. Let sit off heat, covered, for 3 minutes.

 Chopped fresh parsley

2. Stir in chickpeas, parsley, raising, lemon juice, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with lemon wedges. (Salad can be refrigerated in airtight container for up to 2 days.)

 

 

 
My Notes: This was pretty easy to make. For the chorizo (spicy), two links were 6 oz. (after taking the casing off). It was not easy to cut the chorizo, so I took off small pieces and rolled them into bite size balls. The recipe doesn't state if the casing should be removed or not.
 
One can of chickpeas was close to two cups, so I didn’t bother to add any extra. I used parsley; and chopped dates.
 
The recipe states to use a medium saucepan. Next time I will use a larger one. What I used was too small for me to add the remaining ingredients after the, “Let sit off heat, covered for minutes.” So I added the remaining ingredients in the serving bowl and added the couscous mixture into the bowl, and tossed everything together.
 
The recipe was not clear as far as serving: Cold? Room temp? Serve immediately? Since I made this in advance for the dinner, I went ahead and refrigerated it to serve it cold. The recipe does state that the salad can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to two days.
 
This took one hour to make from start to finish. I really liked the flavors of the chorizo, the spices and the hint of the dates. And it was my first time cooking with pearl couscous.