Combining Ingredients for Tabbouleh

"AMY STAGGS: Hi. My name is Amy Staggs, and on behalf of Expert Village, here is my recipe for tabbouleh. Tabbouleh is a very simple dish to make. It's a Mediterranean Greek dish that requires no cooking so you don't need to bother with your stove, microwave, any of that. You're going to be using bulgur wheat which takes 20 to 30 minutes to soak. So, again, no cooking, you just start relying on cold water. You're also going to be using an array of fresh ingredients. The only ingredients that aren't going to be directly from the garden or from the fresh produce aisle are going to be canned olives and optional flaxseed. Tabbouleh is a perfect dish for vegans, vegetarians, anyone who wants to stay away from animal products or meat in general. It also works with microbiotic diets so these are all very healthful, natural, delicious and robust flavors. So this is a great dish to have served by itself as a main course. If you are someone who does like meat, you can also put some ground chuck in it or it can make a great side dish. So, however you decide to make it, it'll look beautiful on your table. AMY STAGGS: Hi. My name is Amy Staggs, and on behalf of Expert Village, here is my recipe for tabbouleh. So let's talk about the ingredients that you'll need to make the tabbouleh. You're going to need bulgur wheat, fresh red onion, I prefer red onion. I just like the taste and the color. Ripe plump tomatoes. You're going to need both limes and lemons for the dressing. And spinach and or parsley. The traditional recipe calls for parsley but as the recipe has been Americanized, over the past few years, spinach is just easier to come by but I like to mix it up and use both for flavor. You're also going to use lemon juice, garlic, feta and the Mediterranean staple, olive oil. And just if you want to go a little crazy and be a little extra healthful, you're also going to use flaxseed, adds a nice little crunch to the recipe. And of course, salt and pepper for the dressing. And olives of course are going to be chopped up and thrown into the tabbouleh as well. So, there are your ingredients. AMY STAGGS: Hi. My name is Amy Staggs, and on behalf of Expert Village, here is my recipe for tabbouleh. So the first step in making your tabbouleh is going to be preparing the bulgur wheat. And when you buy bulgur wheat in the store, it's going to be dry, of course, and in a bag. Looks like you're not going to get a lot but looks can be deceiving because it grows whenever it soaks in water. So, you're going to take three cups of boiling water and add it to two cups of dry bulgur wheat, and I have some prepared right here. You let it soak for anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes just to make sure that it absorbs all that water. And once you see that it's grown, you just fluff it with a fork. And this is going to be the base for your tabbouleh. It's so good for you. And there is your first step in preparing the tabbouleh, your cracked wheat. AMY STAGGS: Hi. My name is Amy Staggs, and on behalf of Expert Village, here is my recipe for tabbouleh. Now the next step in preparing your tabbouleh is going to be cutting up the tomatoes. You want to make sure that you have nice, ripe, plump tomatoes, but not overly ripe. You don't want them juicing everywhere and creating kind of a sludge. So, first, I'm going to take out the center part and you can actually kind of get rid of the seeds because those, again, add kind of a like a juicy sludge that you don't necessarily have to have for tabbouleh. You just want the tomato part. Push that aside. And this adds a beautiful color and crispness to the tabbouleh salad as well. Now, you're going to want to a total of about 1 to 1-1/2 cups of tomatoes. I would check and see if the people that you're preparing the tabbouleh for really like tomatoes. This is an easy way to throw in a really healthful additive. Tomatoes are packed with lycopene so the more that you can add, the better. And it's totally okay if you end up throwing in some seeds, those will just kind of confetti the salad but, again, I like to try to core them out because they do add kind of a juicy sludginess to the salad. They can keep the tabbouleh from keeping as long in the fridge if it ends up being too wet for too long. And tomatoes are the step number three in preparing the tabbouleh. AMY STAGGS: Hi, my name is Amy Staggs and on behalf of Expert Village, here is my recipe for tabbouleh. The next step in preparing tabbouleh is cutting up the onion. Now for starters, I again, I prefer purple onions. I like the color. I like the flavor. They're a little bit sweeter but you can of course use yellow or white onions, if that's your thing. Now we're going to dice these onions. We want to get about a total--about a quarter cup. And like many people, I tend to tear whenever I'm cutting up onions so it's the part I tend to dread. A cool way that I found to get rid of that tearing effect is to soak the onions. Put it in your little measuring cup first, soak the onions in water for anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour or overnight if this is a dish that you're going to be preparing for the next day. Just make sure that they're covered in water and what it does is it kind of neutralizes that element that stings your eyes so you have harmless but delicious onions. AMY STAGGS: Hi, my name is Amy Staggs and on behalf of Expert Village, here is my recipe for tabbouleh. The next step in preparing tabbouleh is chopping up some black olives. So first--and they're usually in a can, that's the way that I like to cut them, keep it simple. I just drain them with my hands which are clean, don't worry. And we want this to yield about a total of--hmm, about a quarter or half a cup. Again, you can let the amount vary, determined on by your preference. So if you have someone who loves olives, you can even use the whole can. And they're good for you so it's not like it's going to hurt. If you have someone who hates olives, just sneak a few in, eighth to a quarter of a cup. These are great for munching and I know it sounds like a simple duh but I would use black olives versus green or cocktail olives just as a disclaimer, because it's the taste of the olives that add to the Greek dish. No cocktail olives here. And there we go. I'm finishing this up. We'll get ready for our next step. AMY STAGGS: Hi, my name is Amy Staggs and on behalf of Expert Village, here is my recipe for tabbouleh. The next step in preparing tabbouleh is adding the feta cheese. You're going to want to use a total of about--hmm, a third of a cup. And the reason that I insist on feta and nothing else, no mozzarella, no cheddar, no other cheese, for several reasons. Number one, this is one of the lower fat cheeses so this is what keeps it a very healthful dish. Whoops, ah that happens. The other reason, the taste, it's again, its so signature to it being a Greek dish. If you add something like cheddar or mozzarella, it's not going to look right, it's not g"