Tabbouleh

I am obsessed with Tabbouleh (pronounced tuh BOO lee). While the recipe originated in the Middle East, it uses farm fresh ingredients you can find everyday at your local farmer's market or grocery store. It is essentially a parsley and bulgur wheat salad, with supporting roles from tomatoes, cucumbers, mint, onion and lemon juice. I make it from scratch and have it for lunch virtually everyday.

The only downside to the salad is that it requires a lot of dicing. I'm not a huge fan of dicing, as it is tedious. I especially dislike dicing tomatoes by hand...for that is the pinnacle of tediosity. So I went and bought myself a commercial dicer...a Nemco Easy Chopper 2. What used to take a lot of minutes can now be done in seconds. Be still my heart.


Ingredients
3/4 cup bulgur wheat
1 medium cucumber, diced
3 medium roma tomatoes, diced
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 teaspoon Kosher salt divided
1 medium bunch curly parsley
1 small bunch of mint, leaves only
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 or 4 tablespoons lemon juice (to taste)
1 medium garlic clove, pressed



Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine bulgur wheat and 3/4 cup boiling water. Let rest for 10 minutes.
2. Combine the diced cucumber, tomato and onion in a medium bowl with ½ teaspoon of the salt. Stir, and let the mixture rest for at least 10 minutes.
3. To prepare the parsley, cut off the thick stems. Then, finely chop the parsley and remaining stems and mint leaves—you can do this by hand, but it’s much easier in a food processor with the standard “S” blade. Transfer the chopped parsley and mint to a bowl.
4. Add the cooled bulgur and chopped fresh mint to the bowl of parsley and mint. Strain off and discard the cucumber, tomato and onion juice that has accumulated in the bottom of the bowl (this ensures that your tabbouleh isn’t too watery). Add the strained cucumber, tomato and onion to the bowl.
5. In a small measuring cup or bowl, whisk together the olive oil, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, garlic and remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Pour it into the salad and stir to combine. Taste, and adjust if necessary—add another tablespoon of lemon juice for zing or salt for more overall flavor.
6. Let the salad rest for 15 minutes in the refrigerator before serving to let the flavors mingle.  Tabbouleh will keep well in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 4 days.

Note: To make a bigger batch of Tabbouleh, just double the ingredient list.

Grogs and Goldie, 1956