Tabbouleh

Part of the Arabic mezze- Tabbouleh is usually served on the side in most eating joints, but in our kitchen it takes all the limelight as an exciting weeknight full meal by itself.  The recipe is a staple in my household and i say staple as we love making it almost 4-5 times in a month. Yeah we are the hard core herbivores, we love love the veges we eat :)

Served with a delish yogurt sauce, the salad will send your taste-buds on a roll.

Ingredients

1 cup whole(or coarse) bulgur wheat

3 cups piping hot water

2 bunches of parsley, washed and completely destemmed, chopped fine
A small bunch of mint, washed destemmed and chopped fine

1 red bell pepper, cubed

1 green bell pepper, cubed

2 English cucumbers, cubed

1 firm tomato, cubed

Crumbled herbed feta cheese( if u like, very optional)

For the vinaigrette

1/4 cup virgin olive oil

juice of a medium size lemon(or to taste)

salt to taste 

For the yogurt sauce

11/2 cup thick plain yogurt

3 coves of garlic grated

salt to taste

4 Warm pitas to serve

Put the cup of raw bulgur wheat in preheated water to hydrate. Cover, let the wheat soften and fluff up. Toss with a  spoon once done and discard any excess liquid. Do not boil the wheat in water like how we do when making rice, u will end up with a mushy salad. If u are using fine bulgur instead of the whole, keep the hot water to wheat ratio as 2:1

To assemble, toss the fluffed bulgur with finely chopped parsley mint red and green bell peppers cucumbers tomato. By the way,you can definitely add more than 2 bunches of parsley. Parsley stems are pretty hard, you definitely want to make sure that you destem the bunch almost completely. Toss the feta if you are adding the same, lends a flavor of greek salad to Tabbouleh ( not traditionally added though, I didnt add in the recipe shown).Make the vinaigrette by mixing the lemon juice and salt to the olive oil , make a good emulsion. Pour over the salad and mix thoroughly.

Let the salad sit for a while and in the meantime make the serving sauce by mixing yogurt with grated garlic and salt. Let this yogurt sauce chill

Serve the tabbouleh at room temperature (or with bulgur wheat still warm) along side the chilled yogurt sauce to top. Alternatively, serve as salad pita pockets and indulge.

A superb picnic food. Easy to travel. 

Enjoy.