spinach, snap pea, and couscous salad with a ton of dill
Well, isn’t this fun! We’re well into early summer now, in the shoulder season before Peak Tomato right at that sweet moment where we are hot, active, barely hydrated, and craving green stuff in large quantities; on Sundays now we take a sweaty morning walk to the farmer’s market to pick up said green stuff for the week, and while spinach wasn’t on the menu this time, this particular spinach was so bright green, hefty, majestic that I reconsidered after I passed the stand. Even the stems, the worst part of spinach, looked sexy. I went back and got a bag.
This is a deceptively simple, component-based pasta salad that is neither pasta nor salad, but it’s nonetheless one of the best things I’ve made so far this season. So let’s talk about it!
the components
The greens. I had the aforementioned spinach, but also some snap peas, scallions, and a HUGE bunch of dill, all fresh and cooling greens that feel naturally compatible with each other. I like to chop my spinach for this salad into bite-sized pieces using kitchen shears, right there in the salad spinner (you can also do this if yours comes in a box). I then layer all of the greens in a bowl with the spinach on top, reserving some dill as a topping.
The couscous. You don’t have to use pearl / Israeli couscous here—you can sub quinoa instead if you’re gluten free—but I love lil balls of couscous for the chewy, light texture and I recommend trying them here if you can. Boil 1 cup of pearl couscous in a small amount of water (enough to cover it) for 10 minutes, then drain and rinse the starches off in cool water. It’ll still be warm, at which point you dump it all over the spinach and toss it together with tongs. This very lightly wilts the spinach without cooking it.
The dressing. I kept it simple for this dressing: 1/3 cup of olive oil, juice from a whole lemon, and a blob (official metric) of dijon mustard, salted and peppered and whisked together with a fork.
The protein. As a proud card-carrying member of Costco, I almost always have an assortment of Kirkland frozen fish filets on hand for mid-week dinners; my boyfriend will throw one or two on the grill while I haphazardly chop and throw a handful of things into a salad bowl, and everything is ready at about the same time. I really like how salmon complements dill, but feel free to use chicken, another kind of fish, some grilled shrimp, or nothing at all.
The other nice thing about this bowl / salad / whatever it is: it is really, really good at any serving temperature, meaning your timing doesn’t even need to be great to pull it off. We left the salmon to cool a little while I finished the salad, then flaked it into large chunks and tossed it together in a huge bowl with everything else. It keeps well already dressed for lunches the next day, ready to go cold straight out of the fridge.
substitutions
If you don’t love salmon, this is also totally great with shrimp, grilled chicken, or feta. I had leftover salad, and paired it with some of my shredded whole grilled chicken.
To make this 100% vegan, just skip the fish; add toasted pistachios or walnuts for a little extra texture and protein if you like.
(non) recipe
A super simple, super green grilled salad with tons of spinach, fresh dill, scallions, snap peas, and pearl couscous in quick lemony dressing, best served chilled on an early summer night.
Effortful time: 25 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes
Makes 4 servings in my house
you need
For the salad
2 green onion stalks, thinly sliced, white and green parts
Some sugar snap peas, maybe 20 or so
6-8 oz. of the best spinach leaves you can get, chopped into bite-sized pieces using kitchen shears—check your farmer’s market!
A bunch of dill, maybe 15 sprigs, roughly chopped; discard any big bald stems
1 cup Israeli or pearl couscous
For the dressing
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 whole lemon (you can zest it into the dressing too!)
A blob of dijon mustard; I used Grey Poupon
Optional: a tsp. of preserved lemon paste, for extra lemony brightness
Make it
Bring water to a boil in a small pot, like a 2-quart sauce pan. Lightly salt the water.
Rinse all your veg. Farmer’s market spinach can be kind of gritty; I wash mine by putting it all into the basket of my salad spinner, filling the entire bowl (with the basket in it) with cold water and leaving it there for a few minutes for the dirt to settle. Then drain, rinse, and repeat if you need to before spinning until completely dry. If using pre-washed spinach, this likely won’t be an issue. You can also do this step ahead of time, which is what I did; just pop the whole salad spinner into the fridge and let it hang out til you’re ready to use. Rinse your dill, snap peas, and scallions under cool water too.
Pour 1 cup of couscous into the boiling water. Set a timer for 10 minutes.
Chop chop! While you kill 10 minutes, thinly slice the scallions and add them to a large bowl. Chop the snap peas into chunky thirds or so, discarding any woody or pointy ends, and throw those in too. Roughly chop the dill, and reserve a handful of it for the end. Add what remains to the bowl. Then use a shears, right in your salad spinner, to cut up the spinach into bite sized pieces. Layer this on top of your other vegetables.
Drain and rinse the couscous under cool water for a minute. It should still be warm. Add this to the spinach bowl, salt and pepper lightly, and and toss with tongs to wilt the spinach and combine.
Mix the dressing with a fork in a small measuring cup until emulsified. Pour over the salad and toss to combine again. At this point everything should be nicely glisteny.
Finish and serve. If you cooked a protein, either chop, shred, or slide it into your salad bowl and give it a light toss to coat everything. Scoop onto plates or into bowls; scatter on the remaining chopped dill and serve.