Tabouli is a Middle Eastern dish that I became aware of at a party given by some friends, who had it catered from a Middle Eastern restaurant.  I immediately loved the creamy texture of this salad, with the delicate flavors of the tomatoes and spring onions.

This salad is great for summer picnics, barbeques – it can be served as a side dish, or as an alternative dip for chips.

I also like this wrapped up in thin slices of roast beef, or leaves of lettuce for an easy lunch.

I usually prepare this in the traditional way, with slight variations when I feel the need. I sometimes add in finely chopped red peppers, or hot peppers.  And I’ve made this without mint or parsley – This is great with basil, or with cilantro.  The cilantro version is fantastic with refried beans, or as a topping with tortilla soup.

Fine Bulgur Wheat	Couscous
Quinoa	Pastina

I tend to use instant couscous, instead of bulgur, because of the ease of prep. I’ve also tasted tabouli made with quinoa, as well as pastina, giving the salad a different flavor and texture.

Enjoy!

Tabouli

2 cups fine bulgur (or use couscous)
2 cups very hot water
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
3 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 Red onion (Or, for traditional, use Scallions)
1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped fine
2 cups fresh parsley, chopped fine
1 clove of garlic, minced fine (you can leave this out 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt (or to taste)
1 teaspoon pepper, freshly ground

If you are going to use the bulgur, soak it in the hot water for about 30 minutes, and then drain.  If it is overly wet, squeeze dry.

If you are going to use couscous, prepare as directed — usually 1 cup of water to 1 cup of couscous.  Bring the water to boil, add the couscous, and remove from the heat, allowing it to sit for about 5 minutes.

Combine the couscous, cucumber, tomatoes, onion, mint and parsley together.  In another bowl, combine the garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and then mix together with the couscous-vegetable mix.

Refrigerate, and allow the flavors to meld for about 2 hours.

You can serve this either chilled, or at room temp.  Keeps for 3-5 days, refrigerated.

This is one of my favorite things in summer to eat.  I love to grill the vegetables, changing out the vegetables according to what is is season.  It looks really lovely plated.  This is fantastic to serve with grilled fish – salmon or tuna being my preference.

Chilled Roasted Vegetables, with Portobello Mushrooms and Honey-Shallot Vinaigrette

1 Medium Zucchini — yellow or green, trimmed, and sliced
20 Cherry tomatoes, or 2 cups of grape tomatoes.  Blanch and remove skin, if you prefer.  Or, 3 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped into sections.
1 medium red pepper, chopped
1 medium yellow pepper, chopped
1 medium celeriac, or bulb fennel, sliced thin
1 large onion, chopped
6 Large portobello mushrooms – cleaned, but left whole.
2 cloves of minced fine garlic
2-3 tablespoons of oil — a nice olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

Okay.. for the vinaigrette..I just kind of make it.  My measurements are imprecise, but tasty ;)

Olive oil
good red wine vinegar (or balsamic, if you like)
1 squeezed lemon
a bit of honey
1 minced shallot

Heat the oven to 450F or about 240C.  Place the vegetables – zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, celeriac, onions and mushrooms evenly on a roasting pan, or baking sheet.  Mix the olive oil, and garlic together and sprinkle over the vegetables.  Salt and pepper.  Roast for about 30-35 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the ingredients for the vinaigrette.  If you have good olive oil, use that, otherwise a good salad oil or vegetable oil will work. Use about 4 table spoons or so. 2 Tablespoons of vinegar.  If you don’t have a fresh lemon, you are really missing out on good flavor.  But if you don’t — use about 2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice.  Mix in about 1/2 teaspoon of honey, and the shallot.  Do not use much honey – you do not want the vegetables to be sweet, but just balance the high acidity in the vinaigrette.

Once the vegetables have come out of the oven, set the mushrooms aside.  Pour 1/2 of of the vinaigrette over the remaining vegetables, and refrigerate for about 1 hour. 

To serve, place one mushroom on six plates, and evenly distribute the roasted vegetables among the plates, placing the vegetables on top of the mushroom.  Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the vegetables just before serving.

To Grill:

Lightly oil the grill grates.  Chop the vegetables into larger, even pieces, so they won’t slip through the grill grates.  Grill over hot coals, but without flame.  If you are using a gas grill, heat one side of the grill, while placing the vegetables on the opposite side.  Grill the vegetables, turning once, until done. 

Note:

Use any kind of vinegar you like (except White).  Red Wine, Rice Wine, Cider, or Balsamic.  I really like to  use Balsamic, but not every time.

However, because of the vast amount of recipes, and their variations, I sometimes hold back and don’t bother to post a recipe — why, when there are 308,000 search results, should there be 308,001? Well, my own take on a recipe is what makes this blog work, I suppose. So, I’ll start to post a bit more.. even though you might find 308,000 other recipes of the same title, none of them will be exactly what I post here.

To that end…

Potato Salad..

From about mid-May, to the end of September, potato salad was made often by my mother — served with almost any meal — from the lowly hot-dog, to a nice pork roast, as well as fried chicken, a good steak, or just beer brats.

Every summer get-together had some version or other of potato salad, and, even within my own family — my grandmothers, my aunts, my mother — all the versions of potato salad were slightly different — one put in onion, one didn’t. One put in sour cream, one didn’t.

My own version of this recipe is akin to both my Gram, and my mothers version — it contains a lot of egg – my favorite part of this salad. I hope you enjoy it as much as I always have, and as my family always does.

One quick note here — I do not have measurements for this recipe. It’s one of those recipes you never actually use a recipe for. I just do it by eye. I will try and give some bit of guidance, however. This recipe assumes you will use between 10-12 medium sized red potatoes.

Potato Salad

Red potatoes
1 egg to each potato – (e.g. if you are using 14 potatoes, use 14 eggs).
Mayo – about 1-1.5 cups up to 2 cups if necessary
Mustard – anywhere from about 1/2 to 2/3 cup
Celery — usually 2 stalks, diced
Onion – a medium onion, diced
Kosher pickles (the more sour, the better), one large, minced
1 medium red pepper, diced
Salt and Pepper, to taste

The key to this potato salad is to have lots of boiled egg — one egg for each potato you use. Boil the eggs.

Wash the potatoes well, and then boil until soft, but not mushy. They need body to stand up to the mayo – you don’t want mushy potatoes here. If you overcook them, make mashed potatoes and try again ;).

Allow the potatoes and eggs to be completely cooled. I usually cook both the eggs, and the potatoes the day before, and then refrigerate overnight.

Dice both the eggs and potatoes. The eggs should be a small-medium dice, whereas the potatoes should be bite sized.

Prep the celery, onion, pickles and red pepper as above – diced. Have the mayo and mustard ready to go in.

Add the vegetables, eggs and potatoes to a large mixing bowl, and gently mix together. Now, add at least one cup of the mayo, and 1/2 cup of mustard. The best way to mix this is without a spoon — use your hands. Cover the mixture with the mayo & mustard, adding more to taste as necessary. I always over-add both the mayo and mustard as the potatoes will absorb a bit before serving.

Once you’ve mixed it well, add salt and pepper to taste, and chill for a few hours (or overnight) to allow the flavors to meld.

A friend from IRC – Wordsmith – knows of my penchant for trying new and different recipes and one day, about 1 1/2 years ago, I was hungry and not in the mood for anything. He told me to try strawberries and cucumbers. At first, I was like..what the heck kind of combination is that!?! But.. I ended up trying it, and falling in love with the tangy/sweet flavors.

Since then, I’ve found there are a lot of recipes for strawberries and cucumbers out there in the world — from salads and soups, to grilling and stir-frying. Who knew?!

I took the concept of this recipe from Wordsmith, and played around with it. I added the sugar and lemon juice, which seem to balance out the flavors once the vinegar is added. I used warm water to dissolve the sugar, though it isn’t necessary if you are not going to serve this immediately.

Strawberries and Cucumbers

1 pint of strawberries, cored and sliced
1 English cucumber, sliced – peel if it is a bitter peel.
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons warm water
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Combine the sugar, lemon juice and vinegar in the warm water. Peel the cucumber if necessary — I usually only do this if the peel is bitter. And even then, I like to leave a little on. I peel the cucumber so it is, in essence, striped. Looks pretty that way, ya know. Pour the sugar/lemon/vinegar juice mixture over the cucumbers and allow to sit for about 15 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, core and slice the strawberries. I like to slice them, you may just want to quarter them. Up to you.

Add the strawberries to the cucumbers and toss to mix. Serve.

Notes:

• If you are going to serve this later, you don’t need to use the warm water to dissolve the sugar — just mix it with the lemon juice and vinegar, and you are good to go.
• This salad is so good with left over chicken, or salmon. It’s also great with poached salmon. It’s also great with broiled salmon. Okay…..it’s just really really good with salmon, already ;)
• I’ve seen some recipes that add mint, use brown sugar, soy sauce, cider vinegar, add spinach..there are endless variations to this recipe.

2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper

In a medium bowl, mash the garlic well.  Add salt and continue to mash it together.  Whisk in the balsamic vinegar, and 1/2 cup of oil.  Add pepper to taste, again whisking well.  I keep this in the mixing bowl, until just ready to serve, when I whisk it well again, and then pour into a serving bowl.

Use the vinaigrette as a dipping sauce for the nuggets.