Tabbuleh, Tabouli, Tabooley

Yes, well, it is a bit difficult to transliterate an Arabic word to an English word in any other form but phonetic, isn't it? Luckily, transliterating Tabouli (my preferred spelling) from a recipe to your table is pretty darn simple.

Ingredients

• Cracked Bulgur Wheat
• Parsley, chopped - remove stems as much as possible.
• Olive Oil - enough to coat the parsely. I usually eyeball this right from the bottle - no more than 2 tbsp.
• 1-2 Cucumbers, peeled & cubed. You can optionally seed the cukes, but I don't.
• 1 tomato, cubed. Roma tomatoes are good. For a Southern twist, try Green Fryer Tomatoes (not fried). They will add a nice crunch.
• Lemon Juice, to taste - adds a bit of acid bite.
• Salt & Pepper to taste optional.

Preparation

Cook the bulgar wheat per directions, and allow to cool off a bit, ideally to room temperature. While that's cooling, you can finish your mise en place on the vegetation. Note on quantities: I prefer more parsely such that the tabouli is more like a salad, however you may prefer a more wheatey dish, in which case, tailor the amount of parsely accordingly.

Take a large bowl, add the parsely and olive oil, toss to coat. Add tomatoes, cukes and lemon juice then toss to mix and coat. Finally, add the bulgar wheat and mix it all up.

Serve

You can use as a side salad (e.g. with kabobs), or top with peppery-crusted pork tenderloin and some tzatziki sauce - both of these will be forthcoming recipes once I get a moment to enter them in.