Bag The Al Dente - Easy Trick for Pasta Salad

We love pasta salad but I hate to boil pasta salad. I've tried every microwave pasta cooker, too mushy, can't do it in a crockpot. I don't like dragging out the big pot waiting for the water to boil, how come the box says boil three minutes or some such and it takes ten and Al DENTE!! how do you know? Maybe it's just a quirk, but hey, I hate cooking pasta.

While perusing my a favorite haunt, the Puget Sound Consumer Coop Deli I was enjoying the varying array of salad with unusual ingredients, beets, quinoa, garbanzos, kale and tofu (not for me), sesame and other interesting vinegars, smoked Gouda and other cheeses. I've asked for the recipes (which they give) for numerous salads, several of which I continue to make - Turkish Garbanzo, and Protein Salad are two favorites.

This day another unusual ingredient caught my attention, Israeli Couscous. It's a round pasta the size of giant tapioca. Considering my dislike of boiling pasta, It occurred that I might be able to get away with cooking this unusual ingredient in my rice cooker, at least I was going to give it a try. If it worked I wouldn't have to wait for boiling water, watch it, drain it, etc.

And...it worked! 1 cup Couscous with 1 1/4 cup water, on with the rice cooker and perfectly done.
Now to try it as a pasta salad. I added 4 chopped scallions, 2 small sweet pickles, a couple tablespoons of chopped pecans, a small handful of dried cranberries, 3 chopped boiled eggs, a stalk of celery chopped, Best Foods Mayonnaise, cider vinegar and salt. I added extra cider vinegar as we like the tanginess and it works it's way into the ingredients to mellow out.

There is a slight taste to the Couscous you can detect if you eat it before it sits for a while. Later in the day and then the next morning this pasta salad was amazing. It may now be my go-to pasta for salad. No  more grumbling about boiling water and al dente etc.