Friday 14 March 2008

Yummy Scrummy AND healthy! Mmmm... Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh - the first time I tried it, I found it so-so. Nice idea, nice ingredients... but in the end, wasn't it just a bit.... bland? Some years later I visited a local Lebanese restaurant - where Tabbouleh formed part of an amazing mixed starter plate. I was shocked with it arrived. Instead of a pile of bulgar wheat, it was full of herbs, beautifully soft parsley - with just a hint of cilantro. Mmmm... I can still remember even bypassing my beloved hummus to eat it. it was that good.

So when I was deciding what to do with the rest of my chermoula, I decided to stick with the North African theme and even though the weather was cold outside, go for this beautiful salad.

It isn't entirely authentic - I do add a touch of garlic - just because I like it! And I wasn't too happy with how it turned out - there was too much tomato (and it was chopped too big), the parsley wasn't chopped quite finely enough, and my local greengrocer was out of cilantro. But after 2 hours resting in the fridge it still ended up tasting lovely!

Tabbouleh

Serves 4
  • 1 cups bulgar wheat (I used the medium grade)
  • 1 large bunch parsley, thoroughly washed
  • 3 large tomatoes (I used 5 - too much!)
  • 1 small clove of garlic (optional)
  • 1 red onion
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Juice of one lemon
  • Salt and pepper
Cover the bulgar wheat with cold water, and leave for 20/30 minutes. If you have a thicker grade bulgar wheat you may have to leave it longer!

Blanch and remove the skins from the tomatos. Quarter them and discard seeds before dicing finely.
Finely chop the garlic and red onion.
Using a knive, finely chop the parsley - including the stocks. I think I left about 2 inches of stock left from my bunch - you don't want the really tough bits.

Mix the herbs, tomatoes, onion and garlic with the bulgar wheat, add the lemon juice and a couple of glugs of extra virgin olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper.

Cover and put in the fridge for a couple of hours to let the flavours mingle. After this time, give it a good mix, taste and adjust seasoning if required.

Serve with Moroccan chicken like I did, or with hummus and pita bread for a light lunch or supper!

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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

With spring around the corner, I'm ready for these fresh and healthy dishes. Thanks for visiting my blog. Much appreciated :)