One of my favourite salads is a traditional Middle Eastern dish called Tabouleh. This dish made primarily with bulgur wheat, tomatoes, fresh parsley and mint, is rich in vitamins and fibre. In fact, did you know that parsley has three times as much vitamin C as oranges? What's more exciting is that it's mid-November and I am still picking fresh parsley from the garden. This year my parsley has endured the dead heat of summer and the winter snow. I have even transplanted some to pots and kept in an area sheltered from the wind; expecting that it will last until the first deep freeze.
To make your own homemade tabouleh first take one cup of course-ground bulgur wheat and add two cups of boiling water and a tablespoon of olive oil. Stir well and let stand covered until the bulgur soaks up all the water. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.
Combine the following ingredients:
Soaked bulgur wheat
1 large bunch of fresh washed parsley chopped
4-5 sprigs of fresh mint chopped
3 tomatoes cubed
1 cup of cucumber cubed (optional)
1/2 small red onion chopped fine (optional)
1 clove of garlic minced
the juice of 1 large lemon
3/4 tablespoons of olive oil
salt to taste
Stir well until all the flavours are blended. Eat alone or with kebabs.
As an excellent and savory addition, add 1 tablespoon of zaatar. This mixed spice can be found at some delis or import shops. The first time I tasted it was when my friend Bar brought me a jar of it from Israel. He called it "holy spice", and I only recently found it in my local import food store.
The last of this year's fresh tomatoes
Still picking parsley in November!
Parsley will keep in pots until the deep freeze
