Couscous Salad with Bacon and Cremini Mushrooms
This dish combines the deep, earthy flavors of fried bacon and caramelized cremini mushrooms with the crispness of red pepper and green onion. It’s easy to make and gets even better overnight as the flavors mingle.
The salad is dotted with large pieces of crunchy bacon.
The mushrooms develop a wonderful flavor from a long sizzle in molten bacon fat.
I love couscous because it’s a snap to cook�and, just like pasta or rice, it has a zillion uses.
You boil a little water, toss in the couscous, give it a stir, and let it sit—covered and off the heat—for about five minutes. Fluff it up, and it’s good to go. Easier than pie? You better believe it.
All about couscous
Couscous (a.k.a. granular semolina) is a big part of North African and Middle Eastern cuisines.
Traditionally, couscous is steamed in a couscoussiere—a double-decker pot designed just for this purpose.
Couscoussiere
Couscous is placed in the top part of the pot, which is perforated with lots of tiny holes. Meat and veggies are simmered in the bottom of the pot. The flavorful steam rises up from the bottom pot to cook and perfume the couscous. The couscous is served topped with the cooked meat and veggies.
(No, I don’t have a couscoussiere. If I had a ton of extra room…I…might. I can admit that.)
If you’d like to try cooking couscous like this at home, you can improvise pretty well with a fine-mesh strainer covered with a lid and set over a pot.
What is a cremini mushroom?
Cremini mushrooms are often sold in the U.S. as “baby bellas” or “baby portabellos.” Read a little more about them here at The Kitchn.
I fully admit that each time I served some of this, I was totally digging for extra pieces of bacon.
Couscous Salad with Bacon and Cremini Mushrooms
6 cups cooked couscous (that’s about 12 oz. of dry couscous)
1 lb. bacon
12 oz. cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 large, sweet red pepper, diced
2 Tbls. parsley, minced
kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper
1-2 scallions, cut into rings
Serves 4-6
Cook the couscous according the package directions
To ensure that you get the proportions right, read and follow the cooking directions on the specific package of couscous that you bought.
For me, this meant combining water with a little olive oil.
Bring the water up to a boil.
Pour in the couscous.
Give it a stir and cover the pot. Take the pot off the heat. Let it sit, covered, for about 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, uncover the pot. Your couscous should have absorbed all the liquid, and should look about like this:
Grab a fork and rake it across the surface to fluff the couscous up.
When your couscous is nice and fluffy, set it aside to cool.
Cut up the veggies
Grab your mushrooms. Wipe them down with a damp cloth to get any dirt off them.
Snap off the stems. Discard them if you like, or chop them up and saute them along with the caps.
Slice the mushroom caps into thin-ish pieces. Set them aside.
Remove the seeds and ribs from your red pepper. Cut into strips, then cut into small dice. Set aside (separately from the mushrooms).
Fry the bacon
Grab your bacon.
Slice it into pieces, like this:
Cut the pieces a little larger than you want them to actually be in the salad. Remember, bacon shrinks when it cooks.
Put the bacon in a large, non-stick pan on the stove over medium-high heat.
Give it a stir to spread it out. After a minute or two, it should start to fry and let off all sorts of glorious bacon fat.
Fry it like this, stirring occasionally, until it gets nice and crispy.
You want it to look about like this:
When it’s done, transfer the bacon to a bowl with a slotted spoon.
You’ll have a fair amount of bacon fat left in your pan. Pour all but a few tablespoons out. (Save it in a jar in the fridge and use it to fry potatoes!)
Fry the mushrooms in bacon fat
Toss your sliced mushrooms into the pan with the bacon fat. Set the pan over medium-high heat. Give them a stir to coat with fat.
Sprinkle on a little kosher salt.
And some freshly cracked black pepper.
Cook like this for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. After a few minutes, they should look like this:
And then start to get nice and brown. When they look about like this, scrape them out of the pan into the bowl with your cooked bacon.
Assemble the couscous salad
By now, your couscous should be cool enough to handle. Put it in a large bowl.
Toss in the cooked bacon and mushrooms.
Give a stir to mix them into the couscous.
Add the diced red pepper and the minced parsley.
And the scallions.
Stir to mix well.
Give the couscous a taste. Toss in a little kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, if you like.
Refrigerate overnight to let the flavors mingle. (Trust me on this one. It’s really good now, but it’ll be even better the next day.)
Serve and enjoy!
Serve as a side dish, or a lighter main dish.
Enjoy!
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
24 Comments
Oh my!
It’s 00:53 am here, and I’m starving (dinner was yesterday! lol)
Such a nourishing salad!
I’ll add this to my list for next week’s meals.
Thanks for the share
Thanks, Banu! Let me know how it goes!
+Jessie
Looks like I just found my new fav web site for recipes!!!
WOW fantastic. I am going to make this for the hubs and I am going to make the cheesecake this weekend!
Oh gosh, thanks so much Josie! Sorry for the late reply…we’re in the middle of moving here at The Mouse House, so I’m behind on my e-mail. How did the cheesecake go?
+Jessie
I made it yesterday and it was fantastic!!! There was a sale at the store on California strawberrys and I made a sauce to go over it MMMM. You are my hero!!!! My son is interested in cooking also I am going to have him pick out a recipe from your site to make. It will really help him with the pics!!!
Thanks so much
Josie
Now those are some instructive photos! If I can’t make that sald then row me out to sea and forget about me…GREG
Awww, shucks. Why thank you, m’dear!
+Jessie
This looks so good. I can almost taste it. Great job,Jessie. I will defiantly make this soon.
Thanks, Bunny!
+Jessie
Why do shrooms and bacon get top billing when the peppers are such an eye popping visual element? That’s always been a peeve of mine — like you order some dish and onions (scallions, maybe) are in it and if listed, would have completely changed your flavor expectations. Looks cooked to perfection, and you’re a great food photog. But you know. Picky eaters for clear descriptions!
Ha! Thanks, honey.
And I totally know what you mean about recipe names. It’s always a hard decision to figure out what to include, and what to leave out–without making them 8 miles long. I usually go with the most dominant flavors (which the bacon and mushrooms are)…and then hope that folks read the recipe.
Cheers!
+Jessie
I have some leftover couscous from a lamb recipe I’m working on. Will definitely have to make this tomorrow!
Oh fabulous! Hope it turned out well. (So yummy!)
+Jessie
that looks amazing!! I’m literally drooling at these photos
Thanks, honey pie!
+Jessie
I’m fairly certain Grumpy would eat this!!
Hehe, hooray for Grumpy! (Extra bacon for him!)
+Jessie
This sounds wonderful.
“I fully admit that each time I served some of this, I was totally digging for extra pieces of bacon.”
I love the fact you love bacon. Ha ha. A subtle hint to use extra bacon? Message received!
Thanks, Ryne.
I totally do have a bacon problem.
+Jessie
Bacon, cremini mushrooms and couscous….oh my! Soooo summertime delightful treat.
Regards,
CCR =:~)
Wheee! Thanks, Chef!
+Jessie
One of my favorite dishes is couscous, the morrocan style one. it takes so long to make though
Yeah, it’s a bummer that it takes so long. Totally worth it, though, if you can find the time.
+Jessie
made this last night, but with Israeli couscous, and I substituted shrimp for bacon (sauteed the mushrooms in a little butter instead of the bacon fat).
quite a light and tasty meal!
love your site…the step-by-step photos and your simple captions are extremely helpful and a welcome change to most of the cooking blogs i read.
thank you!