I had a dinner party this weekend with some close friends and I wanted to share with you one of the recipes everyone enjoyed, my Tabbouleh salad.  Usually, this traditional Middle Eastern salad is loaded with parsley (almost 3 cups) but I prefer my salad to be a little lighter on the parsley side.  Parsley has a mild bitter flavor and a little goes a long way. So in my version, I used both equal parts parsley and mint making it very summer-y, refreshing, and still high in vitamin A & C.

Serves: 6 people, 1/3 cup servings

Ingredients:

• 1 cup bob’s red mill red bulgur
• 1-3 sprigs of parsley (2 tbsp chopped)
• 1-3 sprigs of mint (2 tbsp chopped)
• 2-3 medium organic plum or vine tomatoes
• 1 medium organic seedless cucumber
• Redmond’s Real Salt
• Black pepper
• 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 3 tbsp fruity extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:

1. Bring one cup of water to a boil; add the bulgur, cover, turn off heat, and let sit for 1 hour.  DO NOT remove the lid for that 1 hour
2. After 1 hour, remove lid, divide cooked bulgur evenly into two glass containers, and place in frig to cool off
3. Remove the stems from the parsley and mint and put all the leaves in a mini food processor.  Blend until the herbs are small, minced pieces.  It should yield about 1/4 cup
4. Chop up tomatoes and cucumbers into a small dice, removing all seeds from tomatoes and some from cucumber if necessary
5. Add the herbs, 1 cup tomato, and 1 cup cucumber to one of the bowls of bulgur
6. Season with salt and pepper; add salt, stir, then taste; keep adding salt until it’s to your liking
7. Add the lemon juice and stir all the ingredients together; put back in the frig so all the flavors come together
8. Right before you eat/serve it, stir in the olive oil