Tabbouleh
Tabbouleh is not only one of my favorite foods in the whole world, but it is also delicious, fresh, easy to make, and so healthy. I grew up eating this regularly and request it from my mom whenever I visit home! Here's my take on a classic, traditional Middle Eastern salad staple.
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cup #1 fine bulgur (cracked wheat) see notes
- 2 cups room temperature water to soak the bulgur in; see notes
- 5 roma tomatoes finely chopped
- 5 Persian cucumbers finely chopped
- 3 bunches Italian parsley washed, stems removed, and chopped very finely; see notes!
- 4 green onions finely chopped; if they are small, use 5
- 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil adjust to taste
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt adjust to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper adjust to taste
- juice of 1-2 lemons adjust to taste
Instructions
- Put the bulgur in a medium sized bowl and pour the water over it. Let soak for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes most or all of the water should be soaked up by the bulgur. With clean hands, take one handful of bulgur at a time, squeeze out the water into the sink or another bowl, then add the squeezed bulgur to a large bowl. Set aside.
- Chop all of the veggies and tomatoes as finely as possible: green onions, mint, tomatoes, cucumbers, and parsley. For the parsley, make sure to chop it very fine, just the leaves and no stems.
- Pour all of the veggies over the bulgur in the large bowl and mix together. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and mix to combine. Enjoy!
Notes
For the bulgur: make sure to get the #1 fine bulgur, which means the grain is fine instead of course, medium course or extra course. Here is the general how-to for preparing bulgur. Soak it in water for a minimum of 10-15 minutes. The water should be completely or almost completely soaked up by that time. The bulgur will be soft and chewy and that is when you want to get rid of excess water. With clean hands, take one handful of bulgur at a time and squeeze out the excess water. The bulgur will still be soft and delicious, but removing the excess water will avoid having soupy salads. Don't forget to squeeze out the excess water from the bulgur! You don't want a soup at the end, you want a salad! (but it would still be delicious). For the parsley: make sure to thoroughly wash the parsley and remove the leaves from the stems. This recipe only uses the parsley leaves, finely chopped.