Saturday, July 19, 2008

Tabouleh


Tabouleh (of middle eastern cookery) is a salad of fine-ground bulgur, parsley, tomatoes, green onions, mint, olive oil, and lemon juice. It is typically eaten wrapped in a leaf of lettuce. In American it's often served with pita bread as a dip.

When I finally decided what I wanted to make, I didn't have bulgur. So I decided to use Quinoa in its place. I'm happy I did. I thought it was yummy and light. Perfect for summer. I serve mine with small tortillas I made. I just doubled the batch. Tortilla recipe is on this site.


Quinoa [KEEN-wah] from the goosefoot (Chenopodium) grown as a crop primarily for its edible seeds and is glutin free. I can't even begin to explain, even in simple terms what "goosefoot" is. But the seeds are awesome and can be used in many ways. I used Inca Red Quinoa for Ancient Harvest.
http://www.quinoa.net/ check it out this site very interesting and has recipes. The site has a Tabouleh recipe but I made up my own that is similar. If I had seen this site earlier, I would've made their recipe.


Tabouleh

1 cup Inca Red Quinoa (cooks in 15 min.) or wheat bulgar. Prepared as directed on package.

1 cucumber diced - I partially pealed

diced scallions to taste / I used 4-5 diced green garlic

10 diced cherry tomates

1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped

a handful of chopped fresh mint (or to taste)

salt

extra virgin olive oil (I started with small amount, 1/2 Tbsp then added as needed)

juice from 1 lemon (depending on the how much juice you get, mix a little at a time)


Cook Quinoa as directed, cool. Add all but parsley and mint. Mix or fluff together well. As for the oil and lemon, you want it moist but not drippy wet. The lemon is your all try a little at a time I use all the juice but 1/2 -1 tsp. ( What's neat about this dish is - you can adjust it to your own taste). Once mixed let set in the frig for 3-4 hours. Mix in parsley and mint just before serving. Serve with fresh lettuce leaves or flat bread of some kind.


*If you use bulgar use the cooking instructions on its package. You would also want to use fine bulgar.

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