Food Focus: Middle Eastern Tabbouleh

This week, I made tabbouleh salad. From a quick peek on Google, it appears this dish originates from Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Since I have actually eaten this dish commercially prepared before, I am not trying it for the first time, but it is the first time it's graced my kitchen. I made a few little changes in the spirit of experimentation. First, deviating from the recipe I found here, I added cucumber for that cool, distinct flavor, and traded out the standard red tomato for some heirloom-style cherry tomatoes I found. They are neat mix of colors and delicious blend of flavors. I remember mint being in the original salad. I couldn't get curly parsley from Walmart tonight, so I bought flat leaf parsley. It's be quite the same, but meh. Flexibility is sometimes key. I settled on tri-color quinoa to add even more color depth and visual interest, as well. Since I forgot the scallions, I used an extra shallot I bought tonight.

I am still scratching my head on that curly parsley. I mean, was there a sudden run on it? I mean, this is South Carolina, not exactly the center of health and well-being when it comes to food. Not knocking my beloved home state, but we are better known for our fried chicken, shrimp and grits, and peach cobbler! Too, parsley was never a huge part of our weekly grocery budget. No one in my family even cared about garnish, only filling their bellies.

Anyway, on to the final verdict on the tabbouleh salad!  The quinoa needed quite a long time to cool, as I left it in the little saucepan I made it in. I got so tickled by the colors!

Pretty huh? Yes, there's a little extra water around the edges, but it soaked in while the quinoa cooled.

I'm flabbergasted by how bitter flatleaf parsley is... The mint, however, smelled divine when I was chopping it up. The cucumber? Well, next time I am going to take the time to seed it. I think it would not only give a nicer, cleaner feel, but the seeds aren't all that tasty. Also, the different colored tomatoes are nice, but I would like to try cluster tomatoes next time. Maybe even roma tomatoes. At this time of year, tomatoes are generally grown in hothouses. Not the ideal flavor to be had. I am looking forward to the bounty of the Farmer's Market next year!

I packed the completed salad into four blue, wide-mouth, pint mason jars and closed them with the white plastic lids made for mason jars I found at Walmart a few years ago. The plastic lids prevent metal lids and rings from degrading from acids and oils, and they have a pretty nice, tight fit. I tasted the salad after I finished packing the jars. The flat-leaf parsley is super bitter. However, the contrast to that is the bright flavor of the lemon juice. I juiced a whole lemon and added the same amount of olive oil in a bowl, whisked it up, and drizzled it over the salad, mixing it well. I am hoping as the salads sit that the flavors will mix and meld better and that the parsley's bitterness eases up.

I will most definitely not be using flat-leaf parsley again. I'll try curly parsley next time. If it is just as bitter, I am pretty certain parsley won't grace my tabbouleh again. That being said, I will continue to experiment. This time I used big, standard cukes, but next time I will try the smaller, fancy cucumbers in hopes they are sweeter. I will also use scallion greens rather than shallots. The shallots are ok, but very strong here.

I look forward to the next Food Focus!