Not-Israeli Couscous with Green Beans, Feta, and No Pistachios

I'm starting to realize that almost every time I post about a food I've prepared, I include a disclaimer of sorts. I live overseas (to those of you in the States, that is). Because I live in Japan, I do prepare Japanese foods. But being an American with access to a military base commissary, I can get my mitts on a fair number of American-made products. For this, I am thankful--really, I am--but because our small commissary has only so much to offer, I often need to make recipe substitutions.

This was one of those times. I wanted to make the "Israeli couscous with green beans, feta, and pistachios" from the May '08 Everyday Food. Thank goodness we can get decent feta, so that wasn't a problem. Fresh green beans have come in recently, and though we can get English cucumbers right now, smaller Japanese ones are every bit as good, if not better. But the couscous was a problem. You might not be able to tell from my less-than clear photo (the fancy expensive camera and I weren't getting along), but I used quick-cooking couscous instead. Because of this, I had to cook the green beans separately. But such is life.

I'm not a raisin fan, so I didn't use them. And since my kids aren't huge nut fans, I left out the pistachios and instead added sliced almonds to Husband's and my portions. First Child and I decided there was too much vinegar, but we might not have thought so if we'd had the sweetness of the raisins. All in all, it was a nice dish that made for good lunchtime leftovers the next day.