Tabouleh is one of the many jewels in the crown of Eastern Mediterranean cuisine, or what most people call Greek or Lebanese cuisine. It's a light, tart, cool salad that makes an excellent side or even by itself as a light afternoon snack out on the fire escape in the middle of summer. I named this dish in perverse satirical homage to G.W. Bush's staffers' nickname for Portland (Oregon) and in commemoration of the former Paris of the Middle East.
(shown in the mixing bowl)
Preparation: 45 mins.
Cooking: none
Servings: 6
Today's Specimen
Ingredients
- 4 cups (ca. 1 bunch) fresh parsley, trimmed and rinsed and chopped
- 1⅓ cups (ca. 1 small) yellow onion, small dice
- 1⅓ cups (ca. 1 medium) tomato, seeded and small dice
- 1 cup cooked bulghur wheat, medium coarseness
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice (ca. 2 lemons)
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ tsp. salt
Directions
- To cook the bulghur rinse half a cup of it and add to a cup of boiling water, then immediately cover the pot and drop the temperature down to simmer and allow it to cook for five minutes. After than uncover the pot and allow it to simmer an additional five to ten minutes before setting it aside and fluffing it in preparation to add to the other ingredients.
- While you're cooking the bulghur and letting it cool tear the leaves of the parsley off the stems. It's time-consuming but worth it, and it's always best to get to the most labor-intensive aspect of any task first anyway.
- Once all the prep is done the easy and last part of the preparation begins: just toss everything in a large mixing bowl and sir it all together until the oil and lemon juice give it a nice sheen and a pleasant smell. A lot of tabouleh I've had practically swims in the oil and lemon juice, but that's bullshit — all you want to do is coat it evenly.
- Refrigerate this for at least four hours, preferably overnight, before eating it, making sure to stir it every hour or so to ensure even absorption of the lemon juice and even distribution of the flavors.
Incidentally, the parsley was measured before it was rinsed so it may have lost as much as a cup in volume afterward. Measure the parsley when it's dry, in other words, to ensure accuracy.
Next Time in the Lab
Not bad at all! I'm not so sure but it seemed a little bulghur-heavy, so I figure next time I'll try it with bit more of the vegetable ingredients and a tad extra olive oil and lemon juice.
- Increase the parsley to five cups.
- Increase the diced onion and tomatoes each to 1⅔ cups.
- Increase the olive oil and lemon juice each to ¾ cups.
- Increase the salt to half a teaspoon.
- Toss in a dash of cumin and a dash of white pepper.
