Tabboule - the Lebanese Favorite Salad!

With a little experience, like my mom and most Lebanese cooks prepare it, you can estimate the quantities of ingredients by eye when making this delicious and healthy salad: tabbouleh.

Because it's Lebanon's Independence Day today, I decided to tell you more about our country's most delish and famous dish: our beloved tabboule! No doubt that every Lebanese person knows this salad for it's prepared every Sunday in almost every house in the country. After all, it has the same colors like our flag :)
Ingredients

• 2 cups of finely choped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup bulgur, uncooked, fine cracked wheat
• 1 medium tomato, washed and finely chopped
• 1/4 cup of finely chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1/4 cup of finely chopped onions or scallions
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 to 1 tsp salt (or to your liking)
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Fresh lettuce leaves or cabbage leaves on the side

How to prepare it? It needs a total of 45 minutes with chopping and all!

1. To chop parsley: Sharpen your knife well. Gather several stems of parsley in your hand and pull the stem ends down so that all the leaves are clustered evenly together on one side. Gather the leaves closely together and press against a cutting board. Holding the leaves in place with your left hand, use your right hand to very thinly slice the parsley leaves. Once you've chopped that bunch, you can go back and chop a few remaining big pieces, but avoid going back over the parsley, as further chopping will result in bruised leaves.

It's best if you don't chop them in any automatic appliance, they'll only get bruised and darken.

2. Chop your tomato, scallions and mint the same fine way. It's a good idea to wash all your vegetables before chopping them, this way you'll avoid losing water-soluble vitamins!

3. Put the fine (not coarse) bulgur in a small bucket and wash it for few seconds with water, then drain them. Some people prefer soaking them in warm water for an hour, but this is your personal call.

4. In a large bowl combine your parsley, scallions, tomatoes, mint and bulgur. Then pour in your lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss your mixture well.

It's most delicious served in or with cabbage/lettuce leaves. It is rich with antioxidants like quercetin, lycopene, allium and lutein. These all sound weird/fancy but I'm not trying to mislead you with any. Just know that there are hundreds of antioxidants, some which are still being discovered. The whole point behind them is their potential ability to fight cancer, diseases and aging, so no matter how weird they sound, they definitely are good for you! Moreover,tabboule also has a lot of fibers, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K and monounsaturated fatty acids.

So you see, it looks mouth-watering, it tastes delicious and has such a nutritious value!
You can check the NutritionData Widget on the right to assess the calories in your dish.

Happy Independence Day!