Tabouleh: Lebanese Salad with Cracked Wheat, Parsley, Tomato and Green Onion
Lebanese food is very healthy with many varieties of fresh salads and vegetables. Taboulleh is a classic dish. I don’t measure much of anything, except when I am baking, so the amounts here are an approximation. You will have to use use your taste buds to determine when this salad is just right for you.
1/3 - 1/2 cup of fine grade bulgur (make sure it is #1 fine grade, not medium grade)
1-2 bunches curley parsley
1 pint of cherry tomatoes, or 3-4 roma tomatoes
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
a couple of sprigs of fresh or a T or so of dried mint
fresh squeezed lemons (2-3)
olive oil
sea salt
Soak the bulgur in cold water for approx 15 minutes. The bulgur will expand. Pour off water and squeeze through a sieve to release all excess water. You can use a wooden spoon or your fist to expel all the water from the bulgur through the sieve. It must be very dry. Now for the parsley….I like to wash my parsley thoroughly in a sink filled with cold water to get any particles of dirt out. Dry it thoroughly with a salad spinner, then remove the stems and chop finely. You can use a food processor for this and I find saves a lot of time. Process until it is chopped very fine. Be careful not to over process or you will have a mush ball of parsley. My mother never would have used the food processor, preferring to chop it all finely by hand until it is in perfect tiny uniform pieces. In a medium size bowl, place the bulgur, chopped parsley, diced tomatoes, chopped green onions, and chopped fresh mint (in winter I use dried mint). Now comes the part for you to use your senses. Pour olive oil all over the mixture in the bowl then squeeze fresh lemons all over. If I had to guess, I might say squeeze 2-3 lemons and for the olive oil, perhaps 5-6 T of it. Feel free to add more oil and/or lemon juice. Add sea salt to taste and now you have your perfectly healthy and scrumptious Lebanese Taboulleh. If desired, you can add any of the following for a variation: crumbled feta cheese, diced Persian cucumbers, avocado, romaine lettuce. From the picture of my tabouleh, I topped it with wild spring onions that I found at my local co op. Enjoy!!
