Roasted tomatoes, blistered onions add bright flavors to couscous salad

Couscous is delicious served warm or at room temperature and is a hearty base for salads. Top with cooked chicken, feta cheese or roasted vegetables. (Lynda Balslev/TasteFood)

The star of this summer salad is Moroccan couscous. Couscous is often referred to as a grain, but this is a misnomer. These tiny morsels are grainy in appearance, but they are made from semolina and water and rolled into tiny granules. So, in fact, couscous is a type of pasta (and not gluten-free).

To confuse matters further, there are several types of couscous.