A bright, zippy, unexpectedly delicious couscous salad that’s packed with sweet potatoes, black beans, spinach, feta, and more – all tossed with a life-changing lime basil vinaigrette!
Couscous Salad with Lime Basil Vinaigrette
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You’re right, this was super delicious, and filling! Perfect summer dinner. The basil lime vinaigrette is my new favorite dressing!
Steffi
What a strange and delicious combination I’m about to feed you.
You’re looking at a beautiful, colorful, confetti-like bowl full of:
- Couscous
- Sweet potatoes
- Black beans – but any kind of beans are great!
- Spinach
- Feta
- Red Onion
- Pistachios – because I love them! but any nuts / seeds, or no nuts / seeds also work
- Lime basil vinaigrette
Check Out Our Video For How To Make Couscous Salad:
Click here to see the step-by-step web story instructions for this recipe!
You think it might lean Mexican-inspired with the sweet potato black bean thing…. but then there’s feta and red onion… and some pistachios… and the lime basil vinaigrette is where things get pretty solidly quirky.
It’s so good, so nutritious (!!), and so nostalgic.
I used to make this salad all the time way back in the day, featuring a bottle of pre-made dressing, because that’s what my trusty five ingredient Cooking Light cookbook recommended. I was youthful and new to cooking and I loved easy recipes (still true, actually). Now I’m less youthful, more opinionated about things like making your own dressing, and ready for the still-easy but slightly more grown up version of this salad.
You still with me?
Our dressing here is a punchy lime basil vinaigrette. Which is kind of a lot going on flavor-wise because lime and basil are both big flavors. But big flavors get two thumbs up from me.
You have alternate dressing options if you’d like to stay closer to home on this: cilantro lime vinaigrette (use this same method but swap basil for cilantro). lemon vinaigrette (look here).
Or… you can trust me and plow forward fearlessly into the land of basil-heavy summery tasting green dressing.
Take a taste – do you need more of something? Salt? Oil? Lime? Basil? Tweak it till you get it just right and do not panic if it’s very very flavorful.
This is going to soak in with a bunch of otherwise plain veggies so we need it to be BOSSY.
Get all your stuff in a bowl, toss with dressing, salt and pepper, and muah. It’s summery, a little bit unexpected, and the best way to make lunch / veggies / nutrition / happiness all work together. If you’re hungry for more veggies (YUM) you’ll want to also add these recipes to your veggie rotation.
Couscous Salad with Lime Basil Vinaigrette
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
A bright, zippy, unexpectedly delicious couscous salad that’s packed with sweet potatoes, black beans, spinach, feta, and more – all tossed with a life-changing lime basil vinaigrette!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Couscous Sweet Potato Black Bean Salad
- 3/4 cup couscous
- 1 cup water
- 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced (about 3 cups)
- one 14-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 cups baby spinach, cut into small pieces
- 4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
- half a red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup chopped pistachios (optional)
- black pepper to taste
Lime Basil Vinaigrette
- 1 bunch of fresh basil (1/2 cup packed)
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- juice of 1–2 limes (to taste)
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup water, if needed
Instructions
- Pulse all dressing ingredients in a food processor until smooth-ish.
- Cook couscous in 1 cup water, according to package directions. Fluff with a fork and cool.
- Place sweet potatoes in a skillet with about 1/2 cup water and a sprinkle of salt. Cover and simmer until fork-tender. Drain and set aside to cool.
- Toss all ingredients together with dressing, season with salt and pepper, and serve! (OR, store each ingredient individually for salads throughout the week.)
Equipment
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- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Salad
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: couscous salad, meal prep salad, large batch salad, sweet potato salad, basil dressing, healthy lunch prep
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of magical black bean recipes. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Healthy Legume Lime Lunch Meal Prep Recipes Salads Spinach Sugar-Free Summer Sweet Potato Vegetarian
June 8, 2020
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
There was nothing I didn’t like about this salad. It is delicious! I took it to work for a potluck and they agreed, lots of requests for the recipe. Yum-O!
There are so many yummy flavors in one bowl! We served this with grilled shrimp. We will definitely make this again! Delish!
I have made this and reviewed it before, but I love it so much I needed to again. I made the same modifications, which were minor. I use quinoa instead of couscous and pickled onions instead of raw. I also top individual servings with the pistachios to maintain the crunch. It is so easy, filling, and fresh. I like it slightly warm so I typically microwave it for 30-45 seconds if it is coming from the fridge. Each time I make it, I wonder why I don’t make it more often. It also makes a TON!
This is delicious! I added some dried apricots to this dish, and the texture and flavor profile is divine.
PS ALERT! Another error in 1/2 recipe printout regarding basil–full recipe says 1/2 C packed whereas half recipe says 1C packed vs. 1/4 C packed. She doubled vs. halved the amount. We caught this one but not the salt.
Sadly, I have a major issue and I would never have expected this of you Lindsay. This is a labor intensive recipe with several expensive ingredients, especially if you don’t grow basil and use EVOO. We just made the 1/2 recipe as copied from the site not realizing until it was too late that the salt in the vinaigrette was not cut in half as the other ingredients were. We had to make a double batch of this in order to not waste the salad ingredients. That being said, the salad was very good.
Outstanding recipe! This is perfect for dinner on a hot summer day. I made this last night & it was a hit. Added avocado & topped it with chicken for a hearty main course. I really love this dressing. It has a nice punch to it. Thanks
This was delicious! I made it with quinoa instead of couscous and kale instead of spinach, but it turned out great. Will definitely make again!
Thank you
Sweet potatoes are yellow, these look like yams. I’m going to make this salad this week and I was just confirming that it’s the orange ones (Yams). Can’t wait to try it.
Yes, the orange!
This recipe didn’t hit home for me. Not sure if it’s because I prepped it for the whole week and the pistachios got soggy or maybe the dressing settled.
Delicious! Love the combo of flavors. I added chickpeas as well as the black beans. Can’t wait to keep making.
I added cucumber to the salad, and dill to both the salad and the dressing and this is delicious! Even my picky 12 y/o daughter likes it. I did forget to add the spinach and probably won’t at this point since it’s so good as is.
Can I start with frozen sweet potato cubes to save time?
Yep, should work just fine!
prepped the potatoes and chopped all the other stuff. next day put it all together. i think next time i will try with quinoa – my couscous stuck together. great flavor and served with grilled steaks. used the leftovers of both for lunch.
This has been in my regular rotation since you first posted it. I’ve made it for company and everyone always comments on how delicious it tastes! Great summer dinner!
This is my favourite, most made, recipe of yours Lindsay.
It makes my mouth sing every time 😊
This recipe is so good I can’t stop eating it! I add some more veggies, broccoli and sugar snap peas, which I steam slightly to soften, 1 red bell pepper and I oven roast the squash.
I’ve printed off several more of your recipes and tonight we’ll be trying your salmon burgers with slaw and adding your sunshine sauce. Wish me luck.
Do you have salad resepi book
This was so delicious! I did no cheese and subbed kale (wilted it for a few mins on top of the sweet potatoes) for spinach 🤌🏻
This recipe is so good! The dressing is delicious, and the ingredients balance so well. I’m not a feta fan, so I subbed for sautéed tofu.
Delicious
Wow! I never would have dreamed these flavors would be sooooo delicious together. I just made this and had it for dinner and am so excited to have the leftovers for my lunches next week. Thanks for this!
It is fantastic! so good, and so easy to prepare.
Do we think the texture of Pearl couscous would be ok here?
It’d be a bouncier texture, but it could still work.
This recipe is so good! I made it because of the bingo and wasn’t too sure about it until I tasted it and then couldn’t get enough. All of the different flavors pair together so well. I did leave out the feta because I don’t eat cheese, and didn’t bother to cut the onion. His is definitely on the make again list!