Pearl Couscous Salad with Tzatziki Sauce

My pearl couscous salad, or Israeli couscous salad, is made with toasted pearl couscous, cucumber, tomatoes, chickpeas, olives, red onion, and feta all coated in homemade tzatziki sauce.

You can make this any time of year, but it really shines towards the end of summer when you’re trying to hold onto the last vestiges of sunshine before the cold weather.

I’ll show you how to make it along with ideas for substitutions for the couscous. And if you like a good macaroni salad (which this sort of is), try my mom’s macaroni salad. For ease of browsing, you can find all my side dish recipes in one place. Let’s get to it.

As I am writing this I am devouring a serving of this amazing salad. I made it for a girl’s weekend and everyone loves it! It is savory crunchy and tasty all at the same time. I served it with pitas, homemade hummus, feta cheese, chicken souvlaki and veggie strips. I cheated and used a commercial tzatziki but it was still delicious. Next time I will take the time to make the tzatziki. I need to stop writing and get back to eating! Make this, you will not regret it!

Reader Jane

Couscous Salad, At a Glance

✅Skill Level: Beginner
✅Skills: Making Tzatziki sauce, dicing and mincing, mixing
✅Type: Bound Salad
✅Number of Ingredients: In the dressing: 11, the mix-ins: 6, to cook the couscous: 4
✅Prep Time: 25 minutes
✅Cook Time: 8 minutes
✅Chill Time: 2 hours
✅Yield: 8-10 servings

Jump Straight to the Recipe

Why You Need to Make This Salad

There are tons of recipes for couscous salad out there, pearl/Israeli or otherwise.

What sets this one apart is that the dressing is basically a tzatziki sauce. Tzatziki, with its creamy-tart-cooling flavor profile is the perfect Mediterranean dressing for the nutty couscous, sharp red onions, sweet tomatoes, briny olives and feta, and earthy chickpeas.

Especially if you are a cucumber lover, you’re going to love the double impact cucumber has on this salad, both shredded in the dressing and cut into quarter moons for the salad.

If this sounds like your kind of salad, you can jump straight to the recipe and get cooking!

If you do decide to make this salad, I have a favor to ask:

How to Make Couscous Salad

If you’re ready to cook, you can jump straight to the recipe.

This salad is made in three parts: the couscous, the tzatziki, and the “mix-ins.”

It’s not hard to make at all. Here’s the run-down.

Ingredients and Substitutions

Here are all the ingredients you’ll need to make this salad. Under this photo, I’ll go over all of them, and provide substitutions for some ingredients that may be harder to find.

Also look for optional ingredients that I didn’t use but that would be excellent additions to this salad.

For the Tzatziki Sauce

• Greek yogurt: Strained yogurt is the base of all tzatziki sauce recipes I’ve ever seen. I use a thick, Greek yogurt that doesn’t need straining. This makes a nice, creamy and tart base for the dressing
• Red wine vinegar: Provides acidity to brighten the salad as well as thin the sauce to a nice consistency. Substitute your favorite light-colored vinegar such as rice, apple cider, or white wine vinegar if you don’t have red wine vinegar. I don’t recommend balsamic because it will make the sauce too sweet and also a very odd color that might not be appetizing
• Olive oil: Use a Greek olive oil if you can find it. You’ll use some olive oil to toast the couscous and more in the sauce. I used California Olive Ranch “global blend.”
• honey: Not traditionally found in tzatziki, I always like just a touch of sweetness in my pasta salad dressing. You could also use hot honey or a touch of sugar or leave it out entirely
• Lemon juice and zest: The juice provides more liquid to thin the tzatziki as well as sour notes while the zest provides floral lemon notes present in the essential oils in the outer skin. Lemon is a prevalent flavor in Mediterranean cooking
• Garlic: Use whole cloves and mince them yourself or use storebought minced garlic or paste. I will not judge you!
• Shredded English cucumber: I used one long cucumber and cut it in half-ish. Half I shredded and half I quartered length-wise and then cut into little quarter moons
• Greek seasoning: Your favorite Greek seasoning. I used some that came in a grinder container. Rather than grinding–which would have taken forever–I just unscrewed the lid, measured out about 2-3 teaspoons and ground it up roughly using my mortar and pestle. Any little dehydrated bits of onion or pepper that seem really hard will rehydrate once mixed into the dressing
• Dill: Lemony and lovely
• Basil: Peppery and cooling
• Mint: Minty! I used roughly equal parts of all three fresh herbs. No real need to measure. Other herbs to consider: Fresh oregano, fennel, tarragon, or even a little bit of sage and/or rosemary. use restraint with those last two, because they both have very assertive flavors

For the Rest

• Pearl Couscous: A small, extruded pasta that’s toasted before packaging. They really do look like little pearls. It’s not quite as similar to “regular” couscous as you’d think. Substitutions: regular/Moroccan couscous (tiny little granules of semolina dough), orzo, any other small pasta shape such as ditalini. You could even go larger with your pasta and use elbows, rotini, orecchiette, or radiatore. You may also substitute cooked and cooled short– or medium-grained rice. I don’t recommend using long-grained rice as it tends to be hard at refrigerator temperatures
• Water: for cooking the couscous. You can also use vegetable broth or chicken broth if you prefer
• English cucumber: See cucumber entry under ‘tzatziki sauce.” You’ll use about half of 1 English cucumber shredded and the other half quartered lengthwise and sliced into little quarter moons
• Feta Cheese: Use plain or flavored. I’ve used both plain feta as well as a black pepper feta. Both were excellent. If you’re not a fan of feta, you can substitute soft chevre, although that will tend to melt into the dressing. To make sure you still have discrete pieces of cheese, add some extra crumbles of goat cheese right before serving
• Red onion: Finely diced. You may substitute white onion or sweet onion
• Chickpeas: Either cooked from dried or canned, drained and rinsed
• Greek olives: Use your favorite olives. I used a jarred Greek olive medley from Divina which included several types of Greek olives
• Grape tomatoes: I love nice, sweet grape tomatoes. Feel free to use your favorites. If you use larger tomatoes, seed them and dice them into bite-sized pieces. Other small varieties to consider are pear tomatoes or cherry tomatoes

Optional Ingredients That Would Work Well in This Salad

Salads like these are very versatile, and your ingredient list should never be set in stone. Use what’s in season or what makes you happy.

Here are a few more ingredients not called for but that would be wonderful in any couscous salad, pearl or otherwise:

• Sweet bell pepper (red, yellow, or orange)
• Fava beans
• Lentils
• Preserved lemons
• Capers
• chopped jarred artichoke hearts
• Toasted nuts: walnuts, pistachios, or hazelnuts would be a great addition
• Bulk up the protein with some cooked and chilled (or canned) tuna

There’s no need to add every flavor known to man, so edit your ingredient list to reflect what you enjoy and what you have on hand.

A good rule of thumb is to use 5-6 mix-ins per batch.

Procedure

This salad is made in three parts:

1. Toast and cook the couscous
2. Make the tzatziki sauce
3. Chop/prep mix-ins as needed

Once you have those three components, all that’s left to do is mix everything together and chill the salad for at least 2 hours so the flavors can meld.

Here’s a closer look at each step:

Couscous

1. Add some olive oil to a pan over medium-high heat.
2. Pour in the couscous and stir well to coat with the oil.
3. Continue to alternate letting the couscous sit to toast and stirring well every 30 seconds or so at the beginning and then almost continuously as the couscous toasts and darkens. It will smell nutty, and while some of the “bits” will get very dark brown and others will just have hints of golden brown, you don’t want any to actually burn.
4. Once the couscous is toasted, add water to cover by about 1/2″, bring to a boil, and put a lid on to cook.

Tzatziki

1. Greek yogurt, olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper, and Greek seasoning go in a bowl.
2. Choose your herbs: I used basil, dill, and mint.
3. Chop the herbs finely.
4. Whisk the dressing together.
5. Stir in shredded cucumber.

Mix-Ins

1. Put the cooked and still slightly warm couscous in a large bowl. Add the mix-in ingredients on top.
2. Give it a quick mix, and then pour the tzatziki sauce over all.
3. Mix it up–don’t forget the red onions and feta like I almost did!
4. Stir everything well, cover, and refrigerate so the flavors have a chance to meld.

Equipment You May Need

You will need a large pot to cook the couscous, a large bowl to mix the salad, and a good chef knife to mince up those herbs.

A whisk and a spatula will help make short work of mixing the tzatziki and finishing the mixing.

This is the pan I use to cook almost all my rice and small pasta in unless I am making an enormous batch.

If you use a Greek seasoning blend that has some larger pieces of dried peppers and whole peppercorns in it, you’ll save yourself some time if, rather than using the grinder it comes in, you unscrew the grinder, pour some into your mortar and pestle, and grind it up coarsely yourself.

Pearl Couscous Salad Q & A

Serving Suggestions

With all the Mediterranean flavors going on in this couscous salad, it would make a great side dish for souvlaki, beef kabobs, or gyros.

It would also be lovely to serve as part of a “salads meal” where you get to enjoy a bit of this and a bit of that all in one meal.

Try it alongside my coronation chicken salad for a bit of Indian-inspired and Greek-inspired food on one plate.

Maybe add some panzanella, or some grilled vegetable gazpacho to round things out.

Other Side Dish and Salad Recipes

Israeli couscous salad is basically a pasta salad. I do love a good pasta salad!

You might want to check out my Mexican pasta salad with Green Goddess dressing or my chipotle ranch pasta salad recipes.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.

Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.

If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.

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Thanks so much for spending some time with me today.

I hope you enjoy the couscous salad, friends.

Take care, y’all.