Tabouleh

The original Tabouleh recipe originates in Levantine cuisine, which includes traditions of many Middle-Eastern countries. Personally, it is one of my favorite salads. Very healthy, easy and tasty. What else do you need from a salad?Tabouleh goes well with kebabs, grilled dishes and goes exceptionally well with Eggplant Casserole. If you haven’t tried it, it is time for you to consider making this fantastic salad for your family!

Yield: 4-5 servings (though I can eat all of it by myself )

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup cracked wheat (a.k.a. bulghur)
• 2 cups of warm water
• 2-3 cups of curly parsley
• 1/2 cup of mint
• 1/4 cup of scallions
• quarter of a medium onion
• 2-3 tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp of LunaOlivo Arbequina olive oil
• juice of half of the lemon
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Soak the bulghur in 2 cups of water and let it stand in water for 1 – 1.5 hours. Bulgur will soften in the water. If you do not have much time, you might want to put the bulghur (with water) into the microwave for 2 minutes. Obviously, this is not the preferred way to cook bulghur. It loses much of its beneficial characteristics in the microwave. But we can look at it as an option, in case you forget to soak the cracked wheat beforehand.

Wash the greens thoroughly under running water!

 

Chop all the greens finely. This should be fairly easyCut the onion very thinly. You do not want big chunks in your salad.

   

You can either peel the skin off tomatoes or you can use them without doing so. Make it your call. Either way, you need to cut the tomatoes finely.

 

Squeeze out excess water from bulghur and place all of the ingredients in a medium bowl.

 

Add oil and squeeze the lemon on top of the ingredients. I love using Mayer lemon.  Simply the best! If you are using Mayer lemon, only quarter of it is enough for this salad. If you are feeling adventurous, make your own limits.

  

Add salt and mix the salad with a spoon. You can serve the salad immediately or you can keep it refrigerated until dinner. It is good fresh and it is equally good if it stays in the refrigerator for couple of hours.

 

Bon Appetit!