In our family we love to experiment with food and recipes and we enjoy trying ingredients we’ve never tasted before. This recipe uses two ingredients new to us – bulgur wheat and sumac, which is a zesty, dark red spice made from ground-up berries. Although it originated in the Middle East, this light, refreshing salad makes a great accompaniment to many fish, meat and vegetarian dishes and is quick and easy to prepare. The herbs in our garden are just starting to spring to life and this dish makes good use of them.
This quantity makes 2 – 3 generous servings
Ingredients:
75g of bulgur wheat
200g of fresh tomatoes – remove the seeds and then chop the tomatoes quite finely
2 spring onions, finely sliced
4 tablespoons of fruity olive oil
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 heaped teaspoon of sumac (optional)
a generous handful of fresh mint, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
optional – a handful of any other fresh herbs you have available – we used parsley, chives and coriander
Method:
- rinse the wheat in a sieve under running water
- tip the wheat into a bowl then cover it with 250 mls of boiling water
- cover the bowl with cling film and then leave it to stand for about 30 minutes
- in a separate bowl, mix all the other ingredients together. Taste the mixture, then add a pinch or two of sea salt and a twist of black pepper to suit your taste buds!
- thoroughly drain the boiling water from the wheat, then add it to the other ingredients
- mix everything together well then transfer the tabbouleh to a glass serving dish
- refrigerate the tabbouleh until you are ready to serve it – the flavours will develop a little more during this time. It’s even nicer the next day!
Tabbouleh goes especially well with chicken or fresh tuna, and vegetarian dishes such as falafel and hummus, but today we served it with our lunch of home made moussaka
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