Tabbouleh is the perfect summer dish. It is fresh, tangy, filling and healthy. I do warn you, though, since tabbouleh is such a simple dish, the better the quality of your ingredients, the better it will taste. Try to get really good tomatoes — fresh, juicy and organic if possible — and get nice crisp cucumbers. Although any olive oil will technically work, if you have some strong olive oil that has a lot of flavor, use it! It will give the tabbouleh flavor instead of just making it greasy. A final note: please don’t use quinoa. It may not be unhealthy, but it is overrated and it is the root of some thorny ethical problems. Bulgur is pretty tasty, fun to say and easier than quinoa to cook.
Ingredients:
½ cup dry bulgur wheat
1 cup boiling water
1 large handful flat parsley
1 small handful mint
1 large tomato, 2 medium tomatoes or 2 generous handfuls of cherry tomatoes
1 medium cucumber
½ cup finely diced red onion or 3-4 sliced green onions
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
3-4 tablespoons lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
- Put your water in a pot, add a bit of salt and wait for it to boil. When it has boiled, add your bulgur and remove from the heat. Let this sit for about 20 minutes so the bulgur can cook and absorb the water.
- While you’re waiting for the bulgur to cook, chop up your parsley, mint, tomatoes, cucumber and onion.
- Put the chopped vegetables and bulgur in a bowl. Add the olive oil and lemon juice. Taste the tabbouleh and add extra salt and pepper to taste.
- Enjoy!