My Mom's Tabbouleh

To this day, my mom's tabbouleh is the best I've ever had. So, to honor my wonderful mother, I made it for Mother's Day.

This is another easy, 1-hour dish, packed with whole ingredients, lots of nutrition and great flavors. 

1 cup bulghur  
1 cup boiling water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 - 2 cups minced parsley
1/2 cup minced mint leaves
1/3 cup minced onion
1 or 2  tomatoes, chopped
 (or 12 grape tomatoes, halved)
Optional additions:
chopped radishes
chopped cucumber

In a small bowl combine bulghur & hot water. Cover with plate. Let sit 20-30 minutes.
Meanwhile make dressing in a small measuring pitcher or bowl:
oil, lemon juice, allspice, garlic, salt, pepper and start chopping parsley and all the rest.

Combine bulghur and remaining ingredients in large bowl. Mix.
Stir dressing and drizzle over bulghur mixture, stirring to coat.
Refrigerate until 1/2 hour before serving.

Serve with Romaine scoops and/or pita bread.

Thanks, Mom!

Junk Food Salad

This is my second post about salad. I couldn't include "junk food salad" in my "green salad" post. That would be misleading. Besides, any self-respecting junk food salad is deserving of its own glory, complete with iceberg lettuce, ranch dressing, shredded processed cheese and garlic-powder-laden croutons. It's a whole different animal, and I respect it. As a kid, I would secretly eat this salad, behind my parents' backs, whether during high school lunch or on evenings when I wasn't expected home for dinner. It was sooo good!

You can assemble a junk food salad at any salad bar (including those at the highest end grocery stores), but it gets stupidly expensive, and you're way better off making your own.

Easy Junk Food Salad:
1. Any kind of lettuce
2. Whatever other veggies you want to chop up
3. Lots of cheese, any and all varieties
4. Ranch or blue cheese dressing

Add-ons:
Olives, avocado, artichoke hearts, hard-boiled egg, crumbled bacon, chicken breast, garbanzo beans, sprouts, seeds, nuts, croutons, anything you want. It can be as healthy or as junky as you want, but enjoy it!

Green Salad

Hmmmm. Is it worthy of a whole post? Yes, yes it is. It's often the best thing I eat in a day, and along with the obvious health benefits, it lessens macaroni-and-cheese guilt, pizza guilt and even some forms of non-food-related guilt. It's raw, fresh and full of whole ingredients. What's not to like? Well, some people recoil from the preparation, but they need to just get over it. Really. It's plenty easy to rinse and tear some lettuce, chop a few vegetables and mix it around with some oil and vinegar. Five minutes.  

My Everyday Dinner Salad originates from my parents' dinner table:

1. Romaine and/or leaf lettuce, rinsed and torn.
2. Cucumber, sliced.
3. Cherry or grape tomatoes.
4. Diced bell pepper.

Dressing: equal parts red wine or balsamic vinegar and olive oil (maybe slightly less vinegar) and a squirt of whatever mustard you have in the fridge.

Make it interesting:
1. Add feta cheese and kalamata olives.
2. Add parmesan cheese and artichoke hearts.
3. Add gorgonzola (or any kind of blue cheese), pears and walnuts (best with balsamic).

Next post: Junk Food Salad