Tabbouleh - A Middle Eastern Salad

Another rerun from the early days of this blog.  This was first posted on the afternoon of Feb. 26, 2009. :-)

----------------

We started making and eating our own Middle Eastern food sometime while I was in my teens. This refreshing parsley salad quickly became a family favorite. We shared it with our church family and it was a hit there too. In fact, one girl who was finicky about "green food" actually found that she loved this salad so much she started making it for herself on a regular basis! :-) That's pretty high praise. Parsley, olive oil, whole grain, and more - what a great tasting, and great looking health food!
[The photo was taken by my friend Elisabeth who also made this bowl of tabbouleh.]

Tabbouleh tastes great served immediately or refrigerated. Leftover tabbouleh should be refrigerated, of course, and eaten up within 4 days or so as it begins to get soggy.  Try adding it to a sandwich in place of lettuce and tomato.  It's really good in a pita bread sandwich, maybe combined with some leftover shishkabob or grilled meat.

Tabbouleh

2 bunches of fresh parsley

2 tablespoons of fresh mint

1 small onion

1 large tomato, diced  (or 2 large Roma tomatoes)

1/2 a small cucumber, diced

1/2 cup bulgur

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 teaspoon allspice

6 tablespoons lemon juice (preferably fresh)

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Soak bulghur in water for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until soft. (This process can be shortened by using hot water. Just be sure it is cooled before adding to the salad.)  Squeeze out excess water using a metal strainer and your hand.

Wash parsley and discard the stems. Finely chop parsley, onion and mint. This can be done in a food processor very quickly.  (Note: if you do not have fresh mint you may use 1 Tbl. of dry mint.)

Combine all the vegetable ingredients and the bulgur in a large serving bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Adjust the lemon juice and salt to taste.