Tunisian Couscous Salad with Tuna, Harissa, and Preserved Lemon
A lovely late-summer picnic or a perfect light supper
Looking for something a little different to brighten your August evenings? Here’s a fantastic couscous salad that brings together four of Tunisia’s tastiest and most popular ingredients. And, I’ll add, you can make the whole thing in under 20 minutes! It’s equally excellent with mayonnaise or with an olive oil dressing—go with whichever you prefer.
The key to the salad is, of course—as I say every time I share a dish I like—that you use the most flavorful of ingredients. In this case, for us in the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses and for you as a Zingerman’s customer, it’s easy: the marvelous Mahjoub family in Tunisia does all the hard work! They’re the people who produce the magically flavorful raw materials that make it so simple for folks like us to craft a world-class dish like this one in a matter of minutes.
Start with the Mahjoubs’ M’hamsa couscous. It’s made from organic wheat that they grow on their farm about 45 minutes west of Tunis. They mill the grain and hand-roll it, using traditional methods, into the round shape we know as couscous. Then they sun-dry the freshly made couscous, which enhances the flavor further. (A century and a half ago, all pasta was sun-dried, and it was made only seasonally!) Sun drying yields a more complex flavor profile than the now-standard machine drying. The instructions for cooking the M’hamsa couscous are on the bottle (whose glass keeps the couscous from getting crushed). It takes 12 minutes, covered—I’ve made it many hundreds of times, and it’s always awesome!
When the couscous is done, remove the lid. There should be almost no liquid left in the pan, but if there is, drain it off. Pour the couscous into a mixing bowl and dress with a bit of extra virgin olive oil—the Mahjoubs’ organic oil is outstanding, and it’s the one I use at home year-round. For the preserved lemon, again, the Mahjoubs make it easy—they do six months of natural curing in brine, so that all you and I have to do is take it out of the jar. Remove one of the preserved lemons and cut it into half-inch chunks. Add some chopped roasted red pepper and some chopped parsley. Then toss in some top-quality tuna—clearly, the American Tuna I write about above would be wonderful, and I’m also partial to the yellowfin tuna we get from the Ortiz family in Spain’s Basque Country.
Finally, add some of the Mahjoubs’ traditional Tunisian harissa—which, again, is made with ingredients grown organically on their farm: sun-dried tomatoes, peppers, olive oil, and spices. You can vary the amount based on how much spice you like (I like a lot!). Mix gently.
If you’re eating the salad with olive oil dressing, add some oil, and then pour in a small bit of the liquid from the preserved lemons. Check for salt and pepper. I like to let the salad sit for half an hour or so, but it’s ready to eat when you like.
If you’re more of a mayonnaise fan, simply add a few spoonfuls and stir to get the texture you prefer, and sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!
