Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is a famous Middle Eastern Salad, which is prepared using bulgur wheat mixed with lots of herbs and seasoned with olive oil and lemon juice to get a very flavorful and aromatic salad.Bulgur wheat is a parboiled wheat which just needs to be soaked in water before making this salad. As bulgur wheat is not easily available in India, I used regular broken wheat which I cooked and cooled before putting it in the salad.This salad is quite filling and can replace any meal of the day.I like my salads crunchy and spicy,so I try adding lots of fresh vegetables, nuts and more pepper to them.As I used cooked broken wheat the salad was bit sticky otherwise the taste was just perfect.This is my last entry for my event,hurry up guys only two more days to send your entries.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Bulgur wheat
1 cup water approx
1 tomato,seeded and chopped
3/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped colored peppers(optional)
1/4 cup scallions,chopped
1/4 cup peeled and chopped cucumber
2 tbsp chopped mint
2 tbsp chopped walnuts or almonds or pine nuts
5-6 olives,sliced

for dressing:
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil(EVOO)
1 tsp black pepper powder,freshly crushed
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt to taste
Method:

• Soak bulgur wheat in 1 cup of hot water for 20-30 mins.Squeeze out extra water if anything is left by draining through muslin cloth.
• In a big bowl mix chopped tomatoes,cucumber,peppers,scallions,mint,parsley,nuts and olives and mix well.Add squeezed bulgur wheat and mix well.
• In a small bowl make the dressing by mixing all the ingredients under for dressing section.Adjust the seasonings according to your spice level.
  
• Add the dressing to the salad bowl and mix everything well.Keep it refrigerated until usage.

Serve it cold with pita bread or as a meal itself.

Note: I used medium size broken wheat variety instead of bulgur wheat as it is not easily available in India,so I had to cook it for some time and let the cooked wheat cool before putting it in the salad.

This salad is my last entry which is going to participate in the 'Only' Salads event hosted by me,which is started by Pari of Foodelicious.