This is a typical arabic dish that originated from Lebanon (if I remember correctly). There are many variations of this dish, this is how I like it.
I like it best when its hot outside because its just so... fresh.
Breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It goes well with many things.
Ingredients
1 cup of fine bulgur
2 cups of finely chopped fresh parsley
1 cup of finely chopped fresh mint
2-3 beef tomatoes (peeled)
1-2 spring onions (cut into rings)
Cold water
Olive oil
Juice from 1-2 lemons
Salt
Pepper
Procedure
Pour the bulgur into a bowl and cover it with cold water (double the volume of bulgur is usually enough) and let it sit for 40-50 minutes.
Meanwhile, chop the parsley and mint as fine as possible (remove stems!) and pour into another bowl. Chop the spring onions into thin rings and add them into the same bowl.
Peel the tomatoes (I don't use the heat shock method, but do as you like :D), remove the pulp (we don't need it) and chop them into cubes (not too fine, you want some texture) and save them in a separate cup/dish.
When the bulgur is fully soaked, discard the excess water. Now its time to press the water back out of the bulgur. For that, I usually use one of those sturdy cloth kitchen towels (don't use the paper ones). Transport the soggy bulgur into the middle of the towel, pull the corners up, twist the whole thing so I have a "ball" of bulgur and then squeeze the water out. We want the bulgur to suck all the juices from the other ingredients and not be full of water :)
Add the bulgur to the greens, mix gently and then add the tomatoes. Be careful to not mash the tomatoes. I usually do it with y hands. It is a mess, but I really don't want to smash the tomatoes.
Now it's time to prepare the dressing. I use a mix of 1:1 olive oil and fresh lemon juice. The volume is up to you. Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper together and pour them over the salad. Again mix gently.
I like to store the finished product in the fridge for an hour or two. This makes sure the bulgur absorbs all the juices and a cold salad in the summer is the best!
A friend told me to add some grated lemon peel to the salad. Tried it once, liked it :)
Enjoy trying it out! I hope you like it :)
thenewgreen kleinbl00 b_b _refugee_ there you go!