A Spicy Lunchbox/Desk-Lunch Salad
When it's couscous, you can take it anywhere—even to the opera.
HERE IN THE SALAD LAB, we’ve been thinking 24-7 about you and your lunches—now that people appear to be going grudgingly back to their brick-and-mortar offices, which means not just facing uncomfortable, pre-pandemic, largely unattractive work clothes, wondering who decided offices were a good idea, and dropping the kids off at school, but also worrying about getting everybody fed.
What to pack for lunch has never seemed like such a pressing issue! (Just kidding; it’s always been important but we’re trying to keep up with food-magazine hyperbole: The only frying pan you’ll ever need! Try 238 of our best hard-boiled egg recipes!)
So today we have a couscous salad that is perfect for eating at your desk and also great in a lunch box. There’s very little in it that can wilt, plus it tastes better for sitting around. Adults can make it spicy for themselves or with a bit more lemon and honey for the kids, if the kids don’t like heat—which, honestly, doesn’t seem to be the issue I’ve always thought it was. (Kids today! They are such good eaters!)
And since couscous salad is one of those dishes that is extremely customizable, I encourage you to think of this salad as a guide. But do keep in mind that when my friend Portia (an excellent cook) and I made it for supper one night while I was visiting her in the North Carolina mountains recently, we fiddled around with it somewhat exhaustively and decided we had it exactly where we wanted it. And where we wanted it was chockablock with all the treats. So rather than a paltry scattering of nuts and fruits, we loaded it up so you get plenty in every bite. And then when I got home and made it again I fine-tuned it a bit more. But don’t worry about hurting our feelings! Really.
It would be great in your kids’ lunch boxes with some leftover sliced chicken or kabobs or a scoop of tuna salad or a simple jumble of chopped cucumbers dressed with rice vinegar—and you could eat it the same way, too. But I also love it by itself, with a small wedge of nice feta cheese, which you can nibble on between bites or break apart with your fork and integrate into the salad.
And since we’ve been talking about toting salads lately, I’ve loved seeing what the brilliant cookbook author J. Kenji López-Alt—who is the chief culinary advisor at one of my favorite, most reliably used food sites (Serious Eats) and a columnist for the New York Times—packs for one of his (school-age) children. I thought you might be interested in his feed as well, so please see below:
And as a result of following López-Alt, I have ordered a brilliant salad toter from the Bento box company he uses. I will let you know how I feel about it once I try it out, but it seems pretty dang useful to me. That little dressing pot!
Anyway, this couscous salad doesn’t require such a contraption. You can just cram it into a Tupperware and forget about it until noon, although you might want to include a little jar or plastic container of extra dressing to drizzle over it once you decide to eat it, because couscous is like a very thirsty animal that can never drink enough.
One little note: I am a hot mouth. I found that even though it was quite spicy, I wanted more heat, so I lobbed an entire extra tablespoon of harissa directly into the bowl and mixed it all up again. It was boffo and made my lips burn. You may jazz it up this way, too, if you are part of my tribe. 🌶