Bulgar Wheat Tabouli

If I had to pick one healthy salad to eat the rest of my days. . .it would be some variation of this. Tabouli is a Lebanese Wheat salad, heavy on tomato, onion, leafy greens and cucumber. To me, it tastes a lot like really great gazpacho, in salad form. You can make so many interesting changes and choices with this. I add carrot and either black or garbanzo beans to mine, which may or may not be part of an authentic recipe.

For the leafy, herbal greens, you can use curly parsley, Italian flat leaf parsley, cilantro, mint or finely sliced kale. Onions: purple, Vidalias, green onion. Swap out the bulgar for brown Jasmine rice for a gluten free option.

The first recipe I saw for this was in Mollie Katzen's "Moosewood Cookbook" which was very popular during the hippie-commune era of the 70's.

1/2 large bunch of Italian flat leaf parsley
2 mini English cucumbers
1/2 med. purple onion
2 Chinese shallots
1 big ripe tomato
1/2 bell pepper
2 carrots - grated
2 stalks heart celery + greens
zest and juice of one large lime
1/4-1/2c single source EVOO
Lowry's Garlic Salt
finely ground red and black pepper
1 can beans: black or garbanzo 
~ ~  (drain, rinse then let drain again in a big strainer)

'Cook' the bulgar according to package directions.

Chop or slice all the vegetables into a large glass bowl. Add seasonings, lime juice and EVOO. Gently stir to coat everything and let it marinate until the bulgar is ready to add. Mix together then gently fold in the beans. Serve in big Romaine lettuce leaves. Sprinkle with Feta cheese and garnish with Kalamata or big green olives. Keeps well,  stored in a covered bowl in the 'fridge for several days, but it probably won't last too long ... 😋 ...Lin