Tah Boo Leeee!

I love my parsley plant. It has provided me with delicious leaves all summer. But it looks now like the days are numbered for it. Apparently parsley has a long tap root that my pot (although bigger than all my other pots) is just not big enough. I fear it will be dying soon so I did what any good parsley lover would do....

I made tabouli! Or tabbouleh, as they have it on Wikipedia. Heck I've seen it spelled tabooly in a church cookbook up in Michigan. Once I saw it listed just as "parsley salad" because the person didn't know how to spell it. Tabouli takes a huge amount of parsley. 3 large bunches. That would pretty much clean out your smaller parsley plant. My parsley plant probably has enough for a whole other batch. Yay!

Parsley is an awesome plant. It's high in iron and rich in copper and manganese. I've never tried it, but if you rub it against your skin it's supposed to sooth mosquito bites. I hope my plant doesn't kick the bucket, but I did make a few leaf cuttings and put them in water with the hopes that I'll get new plants. I don't know if it will work, but I'm open to suggestions. Otherwise it's going to be a long winter.

Grow your own is a monthly food blogging event hosted by Andrea at Andrea’s Recipes that celebrates the foods that we grow ourselves and the dishes we make using our homegrown products. This is my contribution to that event. I did grow the parsley and I would have used the mint still in my garden, but it’s 39 degrees and raining and I’m a sissy.

Again I turned to A Taste of Lebanon. Now I'm not the kind of person who likes to sit chopping and chopping and chopping. This recipe is, in my opinion, a food processor recipe. The food processor makes it a snap. The salad spinner is awesome for washing and drying the parsley too. I find it highly irritating washing the parsley by hand and having all the little parsley leaves stuck to my hands, the apron, the place I scratched on my cheek....

But the finished salad is really so fresh and clean and lovely it makes up for any stray wet parsley leaves behind my ear. I can't help but smile when it's done. It makes me think of summer. I like it the next day after the flavors mingle. Then it reminds me of the tabouli you can buy up at any deli back home. sigh.

Oh and one last thing to mention. Bulgar or burghal is wheat that has already been cooked, then dried, and then debranned. It adds a nice chewy element to the salad. I have to also admit that I did not buy my bulgar here. I would be surprised if I could find it here. I couldn't find it when I lived in the suburbs of Indianapolis. So I stockpiled when I was visiting metro Detroit about a year and a half ago. I think I may have a cup left.

Tabouli
Adapted from A Taste of Lebanon by Mary Salloum

3 large bunches parsley
1/3 cup crushed wheat (bulgar or burghul)
2 cups water
4 green onions
1/4 cup fresh mint (chopped) OR 2 Tbsp dry
2 large tomatoes diced small *
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil

Wash the parsley well, drain, and shake out excess moisture.

Soak bulgar in water in a large mixing bowl for 2 minutes. Drain well. Set aside while preparing other ingredients.

Remove stems from parsley and discard. Chop parsley very fine. (Dude I'm telling you, use the food processor) add to wheat.

Chop onions fine and add to the mixture along with the remaining ingredients. (again with the food processor)

If not serving immediately, do not add tomatoes and onions until just before serving. Toss well.

* I used a pint of grape tomatoes that I then cut into eighths.