Lebanese Tabouli
Ingredients
4 bunches parsley (flat leaf preferably)
- 1 bunch mint
- 8 Roma tomatoes, finely chopped; reserving any juice that’s left
- 6 green onions chopped really fine
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (extra virgin high-quality like Columela or Lucini)
- 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice or more according to preference
- 1 1/2 t. sea salt
- 1 t. pepper
- 1/8 cup brown, fine Bulgur
- Bunch of romaine lettuce leaves, separated
Directions
Wash the parsley and cut off the stems; chop the leaves really fine. As an alternative to the time-consuming process hand-chopping the parsley really fine, you can use a blender. Place a bunch at a time of parsley in a blender filled with water up to the maximum allowable mark of container of blender and 1 t. of salt and blend for a minute for each bunch. The parsley comes out wet and finely chopped. If you need it to be chopped finer, blend it a little more for another 10 seconds at a time.
Drain parsley in a colander and repeat process for each bunch. Make sure the parsley is well-dried (a salad spinner works well) before you incorporate into the salad, that way the juices from the dressing will be soaked up better by dryer parsley.
- Remove the mint leaves from the stems. Chop the mint leaves applying the same technique used for chopping and drying parsley. Mix parsley, mint and onions together and add the salt and pepper and mix well. Add tomatoes, remaining tomato juice, olive oil and lemon juice and mix well and adjust seasoning to taste.
- Soak the bulgur in 1/2 cup water (or lemon juice) and 1/8 t. salt for 5 minutes, just before you are ready to mix the salad. Drain the bulgur and add to salad. Adjust seasoning.
- You can also add more lemon juice if you like a zesty flavor, or you can add more olive oil if you prefer it less lemon-flavored.
- Serve tabbouleh on a bed of romaine leaf lettuce or as a lettuce roll. Or as in the above picture, carve a head of cabbage and serve tabouli in it, enjoy!