Couscous with Olives and Sun-Dried Tomato

I am guilty of not making this as written, so read my review with that in mind. This dish was very popular at a table with 6 year olds, 20 year olds, 50 year olds, and 80 year olds. Everyone liked. That being said, I did not make the "add-ins" as a sauce. It was just less time to skip that step entirely. I made the pearl couscous, added chopped black olives and sun dried tomatoes, feta cheese, pressed the garlic, skipped the shallots having none on hand, and at the very end, added the pine nuts. Tasty. I'm sure the original way is very good, this was just easier. Pearl couscous is very forgiving. Doesn't get mushy easy. Have made this twice already. It's a keeper.

The couscous finished cooking before the sauce, and while waiting for the sauce, clumped up as it cooled down. However, after adding the sauce to it and mixing, it did break apart. Next time, I will prepare the sauce first, and then cook the couscous. If necessary, I think the sauce could sit for a while better than the couscous, so this is just a matter of switching preparation steps. For our tastes, this had too many pine nuts for a topping, and I also would cut back on the olive oil when toasting them. The sun-dried tomatoes bring sweetness, the olives give you a little punch of the brine, and the pine nuts lend a delicate earthiness to the dish. Served this today as a side dish, but I can totally see adding a protein and making this a main course. Very nice Erin.

Made this dish and EVERYONE raved. Followed the previous comment and made the cous cous last. Used regular cous cous because that's all I could find. Turned out great. Maybe feta or felafels would be a great protein addition. However, I eat it as my main dish as is!

My girl and I just tried this...OH MY GOODNESS! It was awesome! She's vegan, so to compromise, we added soy chicken tenders and some Bragg's Nutritional Yeast [and a few glasses of white wine]...MMM MMM MMM! This may be the best-tasting meal we've ever had!

Everyone really liked it. I added chicken to the left overs and that was also very tasty.

Worked out really well. I added some water to the couscous and let it simmer a little longer to get it softer. I bought olives that were in some spiced olive oil. I chopped them myself and used the spiced oil to cook with instead of regular olive oil. I also used some of the oil the sun dried tomatoes were in. Very flavorful.

easy to make. i used little cous cous cause my supermarket didnt have pearl cous cous. it was fine. i also put in cut up steak strips after the sundried tomatoes and olives.

FABULOUS recipe!!!! Delicious taste combination with the pine nuts, olives, and sun dried tomatoes.

One Orthodox to another, thank you for a tasty Lenten recipe!

This was a great recipe! It was very easy and took even less time than was estimated. I started the sauce first but cooked the couscous pretty much simultaneously and they were finished at pretty much the exact same time. I could not find Israeli couscous, so I substituted regular couscous. I also added feta for extra flavor and a little protein, which I highly recommend. But this had a ton of flavor and was super easy even without anything added.

Excellent flavor!! My husband loved it. I did follow suggestions to use Kalamata olives,added some feta and shrimp. Will definitely make again at my husband's request.

I enjoyed this recipe. I made the recipe as written with the only exception being that I toasted the pine nuts without the olive oil. The recipe is not bland...but it's not bursting with flavor either, nonetheless I will definitely make this dish again without changing a thing.

I added black beans

Love, love love it

Made as written, gets five stars for the complex and unique flavors presented and for being delicious. Really a simple and impressive little recipe. Thank you for this.

I enjoyed this recipe. I made it as a side dish. I prepared as written. The recipe is not bland...but it's not bursting with flavor either. It got good reviews at the table. Next time I plan to use spicy olives.

Too much pine nuts for my taste. Next time I will put half of them. But other than that , it's very delicious

Didn't have pine nuts so substituted sunflower seeds..... was OK

Awesome - we use kalamata olives instead of black yummmm

Not a favorite. Made it as written and found it very bland and laking. Also, the couscous was not cooked in the allotted time and even after cooking additional few minutes it was still under-cooked.

I used some cashews as I didn't have enough pine nuts and I only used 3 tablespoons of oil for the whole thing as I used the same pan for pine nuts and the sauce so the leftover oil from the pine nuts was used. I also used red onion instead of a shallot. It was amazing!

I've made this so many times! Def one of our faves! Only differences is I use cilantro, chives & cut back on the oil.

The first Vegan dish I made and I really loved it! I used kalamata olives instead of black ones and I used the olive oil from the sundried tomatoes. I didn't have pine nuts but it still tasted great without! Definitely making this again!

Love, love love it

Since my box of Israeli couscous (from Trader Joes) had only a cup and a half of couscous (instead of the two cups it called for) I added in some cooked brown rice to help soak up the extra sauce.

My husband and I have been trying to incorporate alot more vegan meals into our lives. We both really loved this dish! The only thing that we changed was the olives.... We used sliced kalamata olives instead of black. We will be making this again! Next time will maybe try fresh basil on top instead of parsley. Even though I love parsley:)

I made the recipe as written. My husband and I really enjoyed this. It is hearty and filling enough to serve as a vegetarian main course which is what we opted for. It could also go well as a side dish. I could easily recommend this to beginners. I wan't sure at first but I am very glad I tried it - pretty quick, very easy and most importantly tasty! Thanks Erin!

This was a tested recipe and it turned out 5 stars. My husband loved this recipe, and has requested it as a staple. I served this, with peach chicken and we both ate 2-3 servings each. Husband admitted to having couscous for the first time and loved it. Recipe was a hit. Will be making it for the next office party.

Loved it! The sauce was unexpectedly creamy. I think using shallots instead of onions made the difference. The pearl couscous stood up much better than regular and wasn't mushy. I thought it would be too much garlic, but it wasn't. The only thing I changed was in the prep. Like another commenter, I made the couscous and sauce at the same time. I really liked this recipe, but it did seem like a lot of oil, thus four stars instead of five. Definitely a keeper.

This recipe was excellent. I made it in my Instant Pot which made it very easy. (4 minutes QR). My husband really liked it too. Definitely a do-over.

Will definitely make it again! We used Beyond Chicken instead of real chicken, which was an optional ingredient. It was delicious!

i LOVE VEGETARIAN DISHES. tHIS WAS VERY, VERY GOOD. Had a difficult time finding Israelie Couscous to go to 4 stores to find it, but it was worth it. Excellent dish, will make again. Bought 5 bags of the couscous so I would have it again. Didn't have the sun dried tomatoes, but I had the Roma Tomatoes, and it still was awesome. Pardon my spelling,

I made this for dinner when my in-laws were visiting. I used chicken broth since I didn't have veggie broth on hand. It was amazing. My father in law kept getting more! Definitely making this again.

I used less olive oil and used a little more olives! Great dish!