Greek couscous salad that everyone will love! Perfect for any occasion, with meal prep options and tips to make it even easier.
The Best Greek Couscous Salad
Meal prepping has always been my go-to for quick, convenient meals. During college, I prepped every Sunday, making salads, overnight oats, and prepping veggies and grains for the week. It made eating well so much easier, even with a busy schedule.
This Greek couscous salad is perfect for meal prep—4 dinner servings or 6 meals for the week. Even if you’re not into meal prepping, this salad makes an ideal weeknight dinner or quick lunch. If you like variety, try switching up the dressing or veggies. It’s a simple way to have a satisfying meal ready whenever you need it.
Greek Couscous Salad Ingredients
- Pearled Couscous Mix: Cook it as directed on the package and let it cool before adding other ingredients.
- Cucumber, Bell Peppers, Red Onion, Cherry Tomatoes: Cut these all to a similar size so each bite is similar. Soak the red onion in cold water or lemon juice for 10 minutes to make it milder.
- Italian Parsley: Make sure you use flat leaf Italian parsley.Chop it finely so it mixes well in the salad.
- Chickpeas: Adds protein and a nice texture. For extra crunch, you can roast or air fry them before adding.
- Feta Cheese: Crumble it over the salad right before serving.
- Lemon Wedges: Adds a fresh, zesty kick. Serve with the salad to squeeze over just before eating.
- Dressing: This dressing brings all the flavors together. Mix in a jar and shake well before using.
How To Make Greek Couscous Salad
How To Make Greek Couscous Salad- Cook Couscous: Follow the package directions to cook the couscous. Let it cool.
- Chop Veggies: While the couscous is cooking, chop the cucumber, bell peppers, red onion, and cherry tomatoes. Finely chop the parsley.
- Prepare Chickpeas: Drain and rinse the chickpeas. If you want extra flavor, you can roast them.
- Make Dressing: In a jar, mix together red wine vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper. Shake it well.
- Assemble Salad: In a large bowl, mix the cooled couscous with the chopped veggies, chickpeas, feta cheese, and dressing. Stir everything together.
- Serve: Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the salad and enjoy!
For meal prep: Divide the salad into containers, and keep the dressing separate until you’re ready to eat.
How To Make It For Meal Prep
- Get Containers: Use 6 meal prep containers and 6 small containers for the dressing. Keep the dressing separate to avoid soggy salad. You can use small Tupperware, bulk dressing containers, or even snack-sized plastic bags.
- Prep Couscous: Cook the couscous first. While it’s cooking, chop the veggies—bell peppers, cucumber, red onion, parsley, and cherry tomatoes. Divide them equally among the 6 containers. Feel free to swap out veggies based on your preference.
- Add Protein: Use chickpeas for protein. You can roast them for extra crunch with salt and pepper. Or, swap them with other beans or grilled chicken.
- Finish: Top with freshly cracked salt and pepper, a lemon wedge (to squeeze before eating), extra parsley, and feta cheese.
More Delicious Meal Prep Options:
- Italian Sausage and Veggies
- Chicken Burrito Bowls
- Sweet Potato Taco Bowls
- Cilantro Lime Chicken
- Ground Turkey Meal Prep
Greek Couscous Salad
Greek couscous salad that everyone will love! Perfect for any occasion, with meal prep options and tips to make it even easier.
Ingredients
Salad
- 2 packages (4.7 ounces each) Pearled Couscous Mix (I use one made by Near East) Roasted Garlic & Olive Oil flavored
- 1 english (or hothouse) cucumber, coarsely chopped
- 3 bell peppers (1 red, 1 green, 1 yellow), coarsely chopped
- 1/2 of 1 large red onion, chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 cup flat leaf Italian parsley, finely chopped
- 2 cans (15 ounces EACH) chickpeas
- Feta cheese, to taste
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges
Salad Dressing
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper
Instructions
- Prepare the couscous mix according to package instructions making sure to add in the seasoning mix. If you don't use couscous from a package, you'll want to add some of your favorite seasonings because a lot of the flavor in this salad comes from that seasoning.
- While the couscous is cooking, prep the veggies: coarsely chop the cucumber, the peppers, the red onion, and cherry tomatoes. Finely chop the parsley. To take the "bite" out of the raw red onion you can soak it in cold water (or freshly squeezed lemon juice) for about 10 minutes.
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas. If desired, roast them in the oven (see the last paragraph in this post).
- Prepare the dressing by adding all of the dressing ingredients to a mason jar. (I add about 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, but add to your personal preference). Seal the jar and shake until combined.
- TO SERVE AS A SALAD: Add the prepared couscous to a large bowl and allow to cool. Add in all of the veggies and chickpeas. Add in some feta cheese, freshly squeezed lemon, salt and pepper to taste, and the dressing. Only dress what you will enjoy as this salad doesn't sit well for a long time with the dressing on it.
- TO MEAL PREP: Divide the dressing evenly into 6 small containers. Divide the couscous evenly among 6 meal prep containers. Next add in equal parts of all of the chopped veggies and chickpeas. Add a lemon wedge, some feta cheese, and cover everything with some salt and pepper. To enjoy, add the dressing, squeeze the lemon over everything, stir together, and eat!
Video
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 378kcal | Carbohydrates: 31.2g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 25.9g | Sodium: 732mg | Fiber: 10.3g | Sugar: 4.9g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This was absolutely delish!! Thank you for your amazing recipes!
Ahh I’m soo happy you enjoyed this! Thanks for your comment! 🙂
I’m ready to try this, but i was wondering if there were any salad dressings that you can purchase that would work well with this without completely altering the flavor or make it extremely unhealthy (considering it probably will stay good for longer). I’m alone and don’t want too much waste since it’ll likely just be lunches.
Hi Evanna, I wish I had a great recommendation for you but I don’t know a store bought dressing similar enough to this homemade one. Wish I could be of more help!
Kraft’s Greek Vinaigrette is a good substitute if you are desperate for one, it was my go-to in college because you can find it in just about any grocery store. I can’t speak to the health level of this salad dressing but it’s a worthy shortcut.
I am all for throwing hummus, lemon juice and olive oil with oregano instead of that dressing though.
Thanks Anna! 🙂
This was absolutely delicious!!!!! It will definitely be on rotation. Thank you for this amazing recipe!
Yay!! I am soo happy you loved this! Thanks! 🙂
Just a couple of questions:
1.) can this be frozen once you’ve made it up to last longer?
2.) could you substitute rice instead of couscous?
Hi Charley,
I’ve never tried freezing this salad before, and honestly, I’ve never had much success freezing veggies and couscous, so I don’t know how well it would defrost and taste etc. And yes you can use rice instead of couscous! Thanks for your comment! I hope you enjoy!
I just finished making this AMAZING SALAD! I want to tell everyone about how good this is! I had this once at a church dinner n loved it..I just now got around to making it..Only thing I think I did wrong was I tried roasting the chickpeas. N I think I roasted them too long. So next time not so long..although they r bc amazing as a snack. I had never heard of roasting them.what a great nighttime snack..I cant eat popcorn..So lookout! Thank you so much for sharing..I’m trying to diet n cant do much lettuce due to crohns disease. This salad I can do! Thank you n Thank you again..Have a Blessed day!
Yay! So happy this salad was a hit Beth! 🙂 Thanks so much for the comment!
This was really good! Followed the recipe exactly and absolutely loved it. My boyfriend, who has to have meat with every meal, even loved it! Thank you 🙂
So happy to hear that! Thanks for the comment Melissa 🙂
Hey there! I made this recipe for the week and i loved it! However, the dressing became clumpy after the first night in the refrigerator. Do you know how i could prevent that in the future?
Hey Emmalee! I’m so glad you enjoyed this! Olive oil solidifies at cold temps, so if you pull it out of the fridge about 30 minutes or so before you want to use it, it’ll come right back to it’s temp. Give it a good shake and it will be ready to go! Thanks so much for your comment! 🙂
Hi. I made this and it was great but I am just wondering why it was listed as a serving with 25 grams of Fat? Doesn’t make sense since then only thing really with any fat is the dressing ??
The feta cheese would add fat also. 😊
I did it with bulgur for dinner today, replacing the parsley with fresh basil as I didn’t have any other option, and it was fantastic! I have another portion of bulgur left so we’ll have it again next week. A simple and great recipe, thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed! Thanks for your comment Julia! 🙂
I made it yesterday as meal prep for lunch this week and it is INSANEEEEEEEEEEE. Thank Goodness i’m alone at the office today as I am inhaling it, lol! Thanks for such a yummy recipe!
Haha!! Yay!! Love hearing that 🙂 Thank you so much for your comment Angela 🙂