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 The mother of all Lebanese Salads! A light, tasty and refreshing summer salad. Eaten twice a week can improve your health. The chlorophyll in the parsley, the vitamin C in the lemon juice, and the fiber in the burghul combine magnificently to provide excellent anti-oxidant and cleansing agents.
Ingredients:
- Burghul cracked wheat (fine)1
| 1/4 cup
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| 2 Large
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| 2 lg. bunch chopped very fine
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| 1 bunch chopped very fine
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| 1 sm. head
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| 3 chopped very fine
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| 2-3 sm. lemons
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| 4 tbsp
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| 1/3 tsp.
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| 1/2 tsp. (to taste)
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Directions:
Step1 - Pre-prepare parsley and mint:
This could best be done the evening before while watching television. Leaf the parsley and mint discarding yellow or brown leaves and all the stocks. Wash the parsley and mint thoroughly with soap and water keeping them separate. Using a salad spinner dry both very well and store each in a separate zip-lock bag in the refrigerator. Parsley and mint usually keep stored like this for up to a week enabling you to always have ready ingredients for Tabouli. When purchasing Italian flat-leaf parsley, choose those in small bunches with tender leaves and stems. In Lebanese villages, such as Kaftoun, almost every household has their own parsley and mint patches. Tender parsley and mint are usually picked fresh for Tabouli. As a general rule always use fresh mint in an amount from 1/3 - 1/2 of the amount of parsley used in the Tabouli. Also sprinkle enough black pepper until it makes you sneeze.
Step2 - Prepare Tabouli:
In a small bowl wash burghul under clean tap water. Drain excess water and set aside. Wash tomatoes, skin and chop very finely.2 I usually remove some of the seeds for a sweeter taste. Juice two of the small fresh lemons and add the juice to the burghul in the bowl. Add the skinned and finely chopped tomatoes. If you can't find fresh mint, it would be time now to add 1/2 tsp of dried mint. With a spoon mix all the ingredients in the bowl, cover and refrigerate.
Finley chop the mint and parsley using a very sharp knife. Bunch the parsley and mint with your left hand and press as tight as you can to the cutting board. Shave off very thin slices utilizing the knife in your right hand. Run the knife only once with each shaving of the parsley and mintto avoid pulverizing them. Once done, add the parsley and mint to the bowl containg the burghul, tomatoes and lemon juice and mix thoroughly. Keep the bowl refrigerated and covered with plastic wrap until ready to serve.
Step3 - Just before serving Tabouli:
Wash spring onions, finely chop them and add to the ingredients in the bowl. Add Olive Oil (Extra Virgin, preferably from Koura, Lebanon), salt and black pepper and toss. Taste - adjust for oil, salt, lemon and peper.
Step4 - Serving Tabouli:
Serve Tabouli on a platter or bowl surrounded by Romaine Lettuce leaves on in individual serving platters. Serve as part of appetizer (Mezza) or as a salad prior to the main entree. Enjoy!
Serves 2-3.
Variations
- When Burghul is not available substitute with 1/4 cup of cooked brown rice.
- When fresh mint is not available substitute with 1/2 tsp of dried mint.
- For low-carp, skip Burghul and substitute with 1/2 small Romaine Lettuce, shredded
1 Burghul is cracked whole (dark) wheat. Wheat is first cooked by boiling for about three hours in large copper vats and then dried in the sun then cracked. For Tabouli always choose the finely cracked variety. The coarsely cracked burghul is used for Kibbi.
2 Tomatoes can be easily skinned by dropping them for 1 minute into boiling water and then removing them immediately into a bath of cold water to stop the cooking process.
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The Village of Kaftoun, Koura, Lebanon
Recipes 
This lovely mountain resort town is perched above the eastern end of
the beautiful Kadisha Gorge and at the foothills of the Cedars of Lebanon.
It is the brith place of Lebanon's most famous author
Khalil Gibran. It has a small museum which pays tribute to him.
Beiteddine palace was built over a period of thirty years by Emir Bechir Chehab II.
It's architecture reflects the typical oriental architecture of the 19th century Ottoman Era.
It is remarkable for its glamorous
arcades, multicolored mosaic floors, reception rooms, harems, hammams
and even by its guest house "Diyafa" where passing guests were lodged
(French poet Lamartine stayed once there).
Detail of the Sarcophagus of Ahiram, king of Byblos, seated
on a cherub throne, before an offering table, 13th century B.C (National Museum of Beirut).
Around 1200 B.C. the scribes of Byblos developed an alphabetic phonetic script, the precursor of our modern
alphabet. By 800 B.C., it had traveled to Greece, changing forever the way man communicated.
Located in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, Baalbek is an ancient city
that has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Originally
Canaanite (3rd century BC), the Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines,
and Arabs successively occupied Ba'albek and left their imprints on the
place, often modifying what existed previously.
