Weekly Recipie: Tabbouleh

I'm Lebanese. When I was kid, piles of olives, feta cheese and hummus where the food staples. Look out kids, this third grader was packing a Pita Peanut Better sandwich and baklava to school everyday (as if kids couldn't find other reasons to think I was weird).

Looking back, I am SO THANKFUL that my mother helped me foster a love of her families traditional foods. As an athlete, its important to fuel your body so that you can fuel your activities. One of the ways I do this is maintaining a "mostly" whole-foods, plant based diet. I say mostly because I'm a sucker for a good piece of cake or pulled pork sandwich. At a professional athletic event for example. I WILL order a hot dog, that's all there is to it. In future posts I'll be sharing my eating habits, tips, recipes and so on. For today, I'll be sharing one recipe that is made in my house almost weekly: Tabbouleh

Here is the way its done in my house. I've included some variations as its VERY difficult to find fresh mint sometimes or sometimes I'm too lazy to chop three bunches of parsley.



What you'll need:
-3 bunches of parsley. I've subbed Romaine lettuce if I'm just NEEDING to eat this
-1 bunch fresh mint. You could use dried. Again, I've used dried mint in place of fresh if I'm in a pinch
-3 tomatoes (the big ones)
-1 sweet onions. If you use just a run of the mill yellow onion, the flavor gets a bit overpowering. Avoid purple onions
-1 Cup Bulgar Wheat. I get this at Safeway, Barber World Foods and Winco.
-Olive Oil
-Lemon Juice
-Salt
-Pepper

Step One: Prep your wheat
Put the Buglar into a bowl of warm water and let it sit while you prep. This will plump the bulgar and the wheat will soften and expand.

Step Two: Show off your chopping skills
Dice up the Parsley, Onion and Tomato and Mint. When dicing the tomoto (this is KEY!), go to the sink and remove the gooey liquid and ALL of the seeds. Good Tabbouleh has a wet/dry consistency meaning that the dressing is absorbed by the bulgar and the salad is light and airy. Tomato goo ruins this effect. Add all diced veggies to a mixing bowl

Step Three: Add the Wheat
Take a taste and make sure it is soft and doesn't have ANY crunch. Add wheat to bowl

Step Three: Season to perfection
Dressing for the salad resides in a harmony between EVOO, Lemon Juice, Salt and Pepper. Start by adding a light amount of all four. NOTE: Less oil is more- lightly dizzle the oil until the veggies are ever-so-lightly coated

Salt and Lemon should be strong flavors in this dish along with the mint. Keep this in mind as you work the seasoning magic

Step Four: Eat and Eat A LOT of it!
A 1/2 cup of the stuff is around 60 calories. This salad goes REALLY well with roast lamb, hummus + tomato's + feta or simply as a starter to ANY dinner. NOTE: it doesn't keep super well. If you want this salad to last the week (like I do... Here is a tip: Don't dress the salad all together. Keep chopped items in a bowl and add the dressing when you place to serve, It should keep about 5 days this well