The League of Greens
Regular salads can get blah after a couple of bites, and it’s unfortunate because green is in these days. Whether you drive a hybrid car, compost daily or live off mounds of dry greens and humdrum vegetables; you’re part of, what I would call, the exclusive green niche. There’s nothing wrong with being green; I might not sport a hybrid, or compile my organic trash, but I recycle… that must land me somewhere within the niche, right? Back to my original point; boring and dry salads shouldn’t be the sole culinary gateway into this green paradise.
Tabbouleh is a traditional Middle Eastern salad that has recently received popular acclaim in the League of Greens. Tiny beads of fine bulgur wheat give body to the festive green flakes of parsley that make up the salad. It’s then tossed with an assortment of fresh vegetables, fragrant herbs and exotic spices that help give it its unique taste. And unlike the usual salad dressings that are saturated with hydrogenated oils and masked with indistinguishable flavors, tabbouleh is simply dressed with fruity extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice.
Enjoy!
Tabbouleh
Components
- 3 cups parsley, finely minced
- 1 cup bulgur, fine-ground*
- 1 ½ cups water, lukewarm
- ½ English cucumber
- 5-7 green onions
- ½ qt. cherry tomatoes
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup lemon juice
- ¼ cup mint, minced
- pinch of allspice
- pinch of cinnamon
- salt, to taste
Putting them all together
- Soak the bulgur in lukewarm water (approx. 30 minutes).
- Chop parsley to a fine mince with a really sharp knife. (You could use a food processor, but be sure that parsley has dried well so that you don’t end up with parsley soup.)
- Prepare the rest of the vegetables. Strain excess liquid off the soaking bulgur wheat.
- At this point you could store everything in the refrigerator (well covered) for up to a day.
- To assemble, toss soaked bulgur wheat, minced parsley and prepped vegetables in a large bowl. Whisk olive oil, lemon juice and spices together and pour over salad.
- Wash some hearts of romaine to serve alongside the tabbouleh and enjoy!
* My supermarket carries fine-ground (aka #1 ground) bulgur in the bulk and ethnic isles, but if yours doesn’t, Dayna’s Market will gladly deliver.
Posted in Middle Eastern, salads, savory by Antonio Tahhan on November 18th, 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.