Couscous Sushi - Salmon Flakes, Octopus Salad 熏鱼北非小米寿司

The best perk about making sushi at home is that you can toy with thousand and one ideas for your preferred filling. The sushi flavors can be limitless. You can have what you can't get in store-bought sushi. In fact, this perk to DIY "Do-It-Yourself" is not reserved for sushi but nearly...everything.


Using couscous is not traditional but ultra-quick when assembling sushi, not forgetting it qualifies as make-ahead meal, for example, prepare the night before for next day's lunch (Note: I would not suggest using raw seafood fillings in make-ahead meals).

If you do not know how fast and easily couscous can be prepared or cooked, refer to these archived posts. To add to my earlier vegetarian sushi repertoire such as sesame greens and kimchi variety, are these seafood versions - one with flaked salmon (next photo below) and the other with store-bought octopus salad (above).





Don't you think this Salmon Flakes or Octopus Salad Couscous Sushi is perfect for summer? Conveniently, those hot and dry summer days that you do not feel like cooking behind the stove will be those days that you do not even want to turn on the oven no matter how fuss-free "oven-cooking" is. This is simply a no-roast, no-cook "grains, proteins, vegetable" (balanced!) meal is done without breaking too much sweat, literally.

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Roasted Vegetables Couscous

Sometimes it is much easier to put together a dish like this Roasted Vegetables Couscous when there is no desire to stand behind a stove for even 15 minutes. With leftover pesto (previously frozen) thawed, roasted Brussel sprouts and organic red bell peppers, this dish can be prepared and cooked without much effort.

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Chicken Teriyaki, Vegetable Couscous, Miso Soup

How would you like a meal like this? Rather, what do you think of a meal like this?


Chicken Teriyaki, Warm Salad of Couscous and Roasted Vegetables, and Wakame Seaweed Miso Soup.

A non-traditional combination of dishes to have. WHAaat? Pairing roasted vegetables and couscous with Chicken Teriyaki!? Couscous is a staple in North African, and widely seen in some Middle-Eastern cuisines; and Teriyaki is a cooking technique used in Japanese cuisine.

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Couscous Sushi

You may want to look closer. This is not your everyday sushi.


They are made with couscous instead of using traditional sushi rice. Since I did not have sushi rice, it was switched out with another "grain" that might be suitable. As I have been using couscous quite often and pretty comfortable that the texture (soft, just a little sticky, not too wet) might work well as an alternative.


Well, it did. It worked out well and what was better - couscous is practically "no-cook". So now, whenever I feel like eating sushi, it can almost be instant. Since cooking sushi rice takes time vs cooking couscous that take not much time (5 mins at most, of course plus the cooling duration for the couscous before putting it on the nori seaweed).

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Couscous, Broccoli, Bell Pepper Salad

Couscous does resemble quinoa when cooked, but it is a form of pasta, not a seed like quinoa and taste less earthy than quinoa. Best of all, couscous cooks instantly! I love the "instant" part of it. Really.

These days when the weather gets too hot making me lose my appetite, such quick and light one-dish salads are easy to turn to.


Couscous derives from the whole grains of durum flour which is derived from durum wheat. Compared to couscous, whole wheat couscous is made from semolina flour, which is the rough-milled endosperms of durum wheat, retaining the the bran and germ of the wheat berry, making it more nutritious than couscous. Whole wheat couscous cooks just as quickly as the regular variety. Add about 1.5 cup boiling water to 1 cup of couscous or whole wheat couscous, cover tightly for about five minutes for it to swell and viola! Such "instant" couscous are typically pre-steamed and dried, so takes less time to cook than most dried pasta. (Source: Healthy Eating, SFGate.com).

Broccoli, Red Bell Pepper Couscous Salad
Blanch the broccoli, then roughly chop. Dice the red bell pepper. Cook the couscous (refer above). Toss in chopped broccoli and bell pepper into the couscous.

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