Traditional and Tasty Tabbouli
This refreshing salad is simple to make and a great addition to any meal. This is the authentic Syrian method of making tabbouli.
Directions
Be sure to do this step first so that you are not using hard wheat in your tabbouli. Put the bulgur wheat in a small bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Set aside to let the wheat absorb the water completely. This is a quick soak method for the wheat. If you plan ahead, you can soak the wheat in cold water for an hour or so until all the cold water is absorbed.
Soak the parsley in a sink full of cold water to remove any dirt and grit.
Finely chop the onion and put in a large bowl.
Finely chop the tomato into small squares and add to the bowl with the onions.
Drain the water from the sink.
Gently shake the water out of the parsley.
Working one bunch at a time, cut the tops off the stems of parsley. Discard the stems.
Picking through the pile of parsley, continue to cut off any additional stems. You want to make sure that you have only the tops of the parsley as the stems tend to make the tabbouli bitter. Fine, young growth stems can be allowed, but don't pass by too many.
Once all the stems have been cut off, finely chop the parsley. You are done chopping when there are no recognizable tops to the parsley.
Place the parsley in the bowl, making sure you get all of it.
Repeat steps 6 through 10 for the rest of the bunches of parsley.
Once all the parsley is chopped and added to the bowl, add the bulgur wheat.
Juice the lemons and add to the bowl. Use as much or as little as fits your tastes. But make sure it is enough to wet the parsley.
Drizzle olive oil over the parsley. Again use as much or as little as fits your tastes but not much more than a 1/4 cup.
Salt the salad to taste.
Stir all the ingredients together until mixed well.
Serve immediately or refrigerate until later.
Additional Notes
Tabbouli is a salad that I had heard a lot about from vegetarian friends and tried a couple of times but had never really liked. One of the reasons for the dislike was most of the tabboulis that I had tried had a lot of bulgur wheat and were extremely dry. Then I married a Syrian man who's said that tabbouli was one of his favorite salads. So I had to learn how to make it. My husband's Syrian cousin showed me the Syrian way to make tabbouli. Now I love tabbouli and love making it for my husband. The key to a good tabbouli is the quality of the parsley and how fine you chop the parsley. It is said in Syria that how a woman makes tabbouli is a indication of how good a cook she is. The finer the chop on the parsley, the better the cook.
Be sure to completely sharpen your knife right before starting to make tabbouli so that you are chopping the parsley and not bruising it. Use an up and down chopping motion with your knife rather than a pulling slicing motion. Again, this will ensure the parsley is not bruised. If you bruise your parsley, it will taste bitter and leftovers will not keep as long.
Serving suggestions: Rather than eating tabbouli with a fork or spoon, use the end of Romaine lettuce leaves to scoop the tabbouli. Additionally, use pita bread to scoop tabbouli to eat it.
Remember when adding lemon juice and oil, add just enough to make the parsley wet without having too much excess liquid. As the tabbouli sits, the salt with sweat the tomatoes and add additional liquid to the salad, so you don't want to drown the parsley. A lot of adding the oil and lemon juice is based on taste and as you make this again and again, you will learn to adjust the amounts so that you don't get too much or too little liquid. Also, when choosing parsley from the grocery store, make sure you chose the freshest bunches as possible. Avoid buying any that look wilted or limp or any that are not the brightest green. Good eating.
