Some people live to eat; others eat to live. Although I probably fit more in the latter group, there are some foods that tempt me to convert to the other side. Tabouli is one of them.
I blog about tabouli because when I arrived home today after a long work week, there was a big bowl of tabouli in the refrigerator waiting for me. What a way to start the weekend!
Here is the tabouli recipe I like. I recommend using a food processor to chop the parsley and substituting the green onions for the onion. I can never wait four hours…
Enjoy!
Tabouli
- 4 fresh tomatoes, chopped
- 2 peeled cucumbers, chopped
- 1 medium onion, minced fine
- 3 heads parsley, chopped fine
- 1/3 cup mint flakes
- 1 cup cracked wheat (bulgur)
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1 cup olive oil
Place wheat in bowl, cover with warm water, and set aside until cool. Squeeze moisture out of wheat with hands. Toss with chopped vegetables, salt, lemon juice, and olive oil. Let stand in refrigerator at least 4 hours before serving. If desired, add 1/2 green pepper, minced fine. May substitute 4 green onions for 1 medium onion.
I also like it with kalamata olives, hearts of palm, artichoke hearts (trader joes frozen – no oil pack), and for the vegan diet — baby sprouted mung beans gives it a much higher amount of protien.
Sounds interesting… Do you have a recipe or link?
Who needs a recipe — be creative!
Baby sprouted mung beans — buy good quality bulk beans at a health food store. Rinse/wash. Soak in warm water, in darkness (98 deg. gets them germinating fastest). Look for little germ sprouts in a day, or two, depending on ambient temperature. The key is to get them at the germination transition between bean and full sprout; after the split and the stem is shorter than the bean.
It is good to separate out the “hard” beans that don’t germinate, so you don’t chip your teeth. Slowly sprinkle them onto a glass/ceramic dish and the hard beans will ping as they drop. A good source will yield very few hard beans. Apparently, this is one of the few sources for B-12 in a vegan diet:
http://www.innvista.com/health/foods/vegetables/mungbean.htm
In addition to consuming raw, they taste good fried, and in all sorts of things from rice pilaf to soup to salad topping (the new bacon bit).
Mung Germination Protein Efficiency –
http://www.unu.edu/unupress/food/8F051e/8F051E07.htm
http://www.sproutpeople.com/docs/vegejournal.html
http://www.sproutnet.com/Nutrition/Research/influence_of_germination_on_the.htm
“The pulses (nitrogen-fixing plants) are the most important source of protein in the diet of almost all developing countries. Among them mung (Phaseolus aureus) is the most important, containing about 24% protein which is easily digestible. This source of protein is cheaper than animal protein.” — http://www.bspp.org.uk/icpp98/6/156.html
We are from the Middle East. And tabouli is byfar my favorite salad my mom makes. Her tabouli kicks ass.