The weekends are usually when I get all my groceries for the upcoming week. I almost always plan what I’m going to be having for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday for the next five days or so. Since variety is key to my diet, we’ll go from eating a Mediterranean meal one day to a Vietnamese meal the next. Steaks to vegetarian can be found on the menu, we’re not picky. So I often it find it very hard to get all my ingredients at one supermarket and end up driving from end to end in the city to get all the ingredients that I require.
However, the other weekend I was able to go to superstore and find everything I needed to make a traditional tabbouleh salad to go with the chicken shawarma I was prepping that evening along with the other meals of the week. I was ecstatic (so much so that I had to write a whole blog about it)! I’m sure those of you who do shop at superstore understand exactly how I feel. More often then not they’ll be out of the herbs I need or the veggies don’t exactly scream fresh. So one would ask why I go there all the time, easy:
1) Its 5 minutes from my house, I enjoy saving time (that way I can cook more)
2) To an extent, I am a creature of habit (zombie mode comes out now and again)
3) There is a wide variety of items not carried at other supermarkets (eg. Chinese veggies, trying hard for the one stop shop here)
You can imagine my shock when I realized they had both fresh parsley and mint that day. It was almost like the vegetable gods were pleading for me to make tabbouleh. So I did.
I’ve posted previously a quinoa tabbouli (tabbouleh, which ever way you prefer to spell it) recipe, but this one is a little more rustic and closer to what can be found at your local shawarma shop. With nothing more then parsley, mint, onions and a little bit of spices, it makes for a great accompaniment for any Middle Eastern meal. It’s a great way to add a bit more greenery in to an already amazing and healthy dinner (never hurts to up the fibre intake either).
So here is my take on it, hope you all enjoy (and can find all the required veggies at a local store near you)! Recipe is adapted from David Lebovitz’s blog.
Ingredients:
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
3 sprigs of green onion or 1/2 sweet white onion, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 tsp cinnamon – I like a bit more cinnamon in my salad
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp ground pepper
1/2 lemon, squeezed
Salt to taste
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Preparation:
Chop all the parsley, mint leaves, green onions (or onions if you want to give the tabbouleh a bit more kick) and tomatoes.
Combine them all in a bowl and add in the cinnamon, allspice, pepper and lemon juice.
Mix and add in the salt to taste. Once everything is incorporated, pour in the olive oil.
Enjoy it straight away or you can let it sit overnight for the flavours to infuse. Place it in the fridge with a bit of saran wrap.
Recipe equates to roughly 4 servings.
Comments
Post a Comment