Sunday, December 13, 2009

Tabbou-Tabbou-Leh


Simple and Delicious. Here's a great, healthy meal and/or side dish that has it all-whole grains, raw vegetables, protein, good fats. Yesterday I made tabbouleh, a Mediterranean dish and it turned out great. I started with "Bob's Red Mill" Quick-cooking Bulgar, which is 100% whole grain wheat. I actually used the recipe on the bag, which is quite simple and requires no cooking at all. To begin, I combined 2 cups of water with 2 cups of bulgar and put it aside to soak for an hour. Then, I finely minced a bunch of parsley, chopped about 1/4 cup of mint, sliced 3 green onions, seeded and diced 2 tomatoes and combined these ingredients in a bowl with salt, pepper, cumin, and lemon juice and stirred them together lightly. I then placed that mixture in the fridge for an hour. When it was done, I combined the bulgar and the vegetable/herb mix with olive oil and placed it on top of romaine leaves and cucumber slices (shown in picture). I tasted the mix and though it was okay, I had to put my spin on it. When we were ready to eat, I took the tabbouleh mixture and put it back in a bowl and added a can of chick peas, rinsed, chopped red onion, more black pepper and salt to taste, and took the cucumbers and romaine, chopped and added them. Then I stirred up the entire mixture, and it definitely was kicked up a few notches and served as an awesome, wholesome, healthy dinner. You can find bulgar in your local supermarket. I got this particular brand at Jewel, and I will definitely make this again. Here's a tip: Be innovative: Add chilled, grilled meats such as chicken breast and salmon fillets and/or other veggies such as broccoli, carrots, chopped almonds (oooooh I'm doin that next time), kalamata or black olives, etc. What I did here since I never made this is followed the recipe (thus duplicating success), and then when I learned the jist of it I tweaked it and made it my own. That's the main idea here. Please post your comments and variations of this dish and/or other salads--I'd love to try them out! Thanks for reading and have a great night!

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