Couscous Salad with Lukewarm Balsamic-wilted Spinach Salad

Spring is approaching!  When I went to the bakery, I heard a loud gaggle and to my surprise a flock of geese from the River Neckar had been coming up the hill to feast on some greens in front of an office building just opposite the bakery shop.

Well, that was for sure the sign for exchanging soups for salads :) and since I had  some leftover couscous from yesterday evening -which is of course perfect for a quick Sunday morning salad- I knew what I had to do.

Couscous itself is a very good source for B-vitamins and some added veggies and lemon make it perfectly healthy and on top a very tasty dish. I added some spinach which I wilted in the pan with some aceto balsamico and although it maybe doesn't look all that nice (wilted things never do, right?) it sure tasted delicious :)

Since the salad was an unexpected addition to breakfast there is no real recipes and I didn't measure the ingredients, but this is roughly what I put together (you have to adjust it to your liking anyway):

Couscous Salad with Lukewarm Balsamic-wilted Spinach Salad

150 g couscous

225 ml water

3 carrots

250 g cocktail tomatoes

1 handful toasted pine nuts

parsley

1 organic lemon (zest and juice)

herbal salt, black pepper

2 tablespoons of olive oil

500 g spinach

olive oil

1 onion

balsamic vinegar

salt, pepper

What to do

Boil waster and pour over couccous. Let stand for 10-15 minutes, then fluff the couscous with a fork. Add grated the carrots, halved cocktail tomatoes, pine nuts, parsley, lemon cest and juice, spices, and olive oil. Mix well.

Pull apart spinach and wash thoroughly. Heat the olive oil in a pan, add onion and fry until translucent, add spinach and fry a further minute. Deglaze with the balsamic vinegar; put on the lid and let the spinach wilt. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

To serve

Top the quinoa salad with the still lukewarm spinach salad.

I'm sending this to Souper Sundays, an event hosted by Debbie from Kahakai Kitchen, which not only collects soups but also delicious salads, and sandwiches. So don't forget to stop by and have a look at the weekly collection of recipes :)

I'm also adding this to Tobias' Kochrezepte Basar am Wochenende (Weekend Recipe Bazaar) who wants to know what was in our pots at the weekend.