Cranberry Pecan Holiday Couscous

I remember exactly when I fell in love with couscous.  It was one Saturday lunch at a fabulous cafe called Afternoon Tea in Japan.  Okay, that was a bit melodramatic, but really, there are so many reasons to love this place; the abundance of pastries, incredible lunch menu, drink concoctions, and the unique and super cute (useful word to learn if you ever go to Japan: Kawaii) kitchen utensils.  It’s like a good food blog in real dimension.  I love them so much I’m going to have to dedicate a blog post about them someday…but in the meantime, I’ll share with you my version of couscous salad.  Since I was still left with a bucket load of cranberries, I took initiative and made the last cranberry-infused dish.  What I really love about this couscous salad is the sweet and sour combination.  Since I used fresh cranberries-rather than the dried ones-it also dyed the couscous into a beautiful beet red for the holiday look.  There is so much flavor and texture, I recommend adding it as a side dish to your salad when you pack it away for lunch.  You can also just eat it by itself.  Vegan recipes might be hard to find during Turkey day-we hope this helps!

1 cup couscous
1 Tbs olive oil
1 and 3/4 cups water (for couscous)
1 cup fresh cranberries
1 cup water (for cranberries)
1 Tbs sugar (for cranberries)
1/2 lemon juice
1 large garlic clove finely chopped
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup chopped scallions
1 Tbs canola oil
1 Tbs vinegar
2 Tbs honey
1 tsp thyme
Dash of salt and pepper

1. In skillet heat olive oil, and add couscous until it is lightly burnt.
2.  Add water and bring to low-heat.  Put a lid on.  It should be ready in about 5 minutes.
3.  Boil cranberries and sugar over medium heat.  Once the cranberries start popping, drain it.
4.  Once couscous is ready, add all the ingredients except for the scallions and pecans.  You want to add those in the end so they don’t get too soggy.

Here are our other recent cranberry recipes that you might enjoy reading:
White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cranberry
Brownie Cookies with White Chocolate Condensed Milk Cranberry Sauce
Butternut Squash Pizza with Rosemary Ricotta Cheese, Fresh Brown Sugar Cranberries + Walnuts