There are people who slink through the grocery store, hoping nobody will recognize them, when they have to buy this particular ingredient.

Yes, I’m talking about prunes.

It’s their connotation with being a natural laxative and their association with, well, people of a certain senior age, that have done them in.

Yet we all relish juicy summer plums. It’s only when they get dried and renamed prunes that we get the heebie-jeebies.

That’s precisely when their sweetness and flavor concentrate magnificently, though.

So, just get over it. And grab a bag to make “Spiced Pearl Couscous Salad.”

This easy-peasy recipe is from “Salad” (Smith Street Books, 2022), of which I received a review copy.

It’s one of 100 recipes for salads and dressings in this book by Janneke Philippi, a Dutch food stylist and cookbook author.

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