Health on a plate

Tabouleh
Lebanese "parsley on steroids" salad.

When I was in Lebanon I made tabouleh everyday. We ate it for breakfast lunch and dinner. And I believe to this day that that is why I was not sick during the time I was in Lebanon (December to last day of April) nor was I sick for two years after! Not only did I eat all that parsley, but everything else we ate was very fresh. Because I was there during Lent when the Lebanese eat no meat at all for 6 weeks, we ate vegetarian. But it wasn't the vegetarian part of the diet that was so healthy, it was the tabouleh. Or maybe it was both.

Let's think parsley.
It has tremendous amounts of vitamin C. Two tablespoons give you about 17% of your daily need for vitamin C. Those same two tablespoons give you over 150% of your daily need for vitamin K. (If you have any blood issues, this is a winner) Parsley also has lots of vitamin A. All this nutrition in a mere two tablespoons and a measley 2 calories! (well you do add olive oil to the recipe so calorie count is way over 2)

There was a time when I used to juice parsley and drink it. It has an extremely strong taste and it was hard to drink without something added to it. While parsley juice is good for you, it is tough on the palate. But tabouleh-now tabouleh you can eat everyday and you just get to love more and more. The trouble is that tabouleh is trouble to make. But in Lebanon it is made so often that it is nothing more than a routine daily chore.

here is a recipe for tabouleh. Real easy if you have a food processor for the parsley. Everything is cut up really tiny.

Put about 2 cups of water up to boil first.

2 fresh bunches of curly leaf parsley. Very green. Very stiff-not limp.
1/2 cup Bulgar wheat (I have seen this in regular supermarkets in the ethnic section,
would also look in Whole Foods or those so called nutrition type stores.)
3 or 4 scallions - maybe more depending on your taste. You could also use 1/2 of a small onion.
2 to 4 tomatoes - this also depends on your taste and strength of your cutting arm. I use 2.
1/4 cup olive oil - or less if you do not want to use so much.
1 heaping tablespoon of dried mint
1/2 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cinnamon
juice from 2 fresh lemons if you do not have fresh lemons- do not make this recipe.
salt
pepper

Put the bulgar in a bowl and pour boiling water over it. Let it sit for 1/2 hour.
Get the sharpest knife you have and scrunch the well washed parsley in your hand so that only a bit is peeking out of your fist. Then make the smallest of slices so that the parsley is like tiny green confetti. Keep moving the parsley out of your fisted fingers so that a little bit shows and continue to make tiny slices. Or stick it in a food processor. Put it in a big bowl.
Now cut the tomatoes so that they have tiny pieces. Put it in the bowl.
Now cut up the scallions into tiny pieces. Put it in the bowl.
Add the olive oil, mint, allspice,cinnamon, salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Mix.
Eat it western style with a fork or get pita, place a good amount on top of the pita and tear away the sides of the pita to scoop up the tabouleh in the center. Or you can eat it scooped up with lettuce leaves.

Stay healthy. I love you.

Potato Kibbe

I was in Lebanon during Lent and one of the dishes that I most loved was a meatless variation of a national dish called Kibbe. Kibbe is usually made with lamb, but during Lent, my aunt made it using potatoes.
Last weekend, when my visiting cousin took me around to visit distant cousins that I did not know I had, living not more than 45 minutes from where I live, we started talking about Kibbe Batata (potato kibbe) and my mouth started to water. In Lebanon, in those days, women would sit in front of a large hollowed out marble slab, put all the
ingredients in the cavity and pound it to a fare-thee-well. I think a good food processor would get the same results.




In the interest of full disclosure, I have never made it but I do have a Lebanese cookbook and I have taken this recipe from there. This recipe is from a cookbook I own called, "Foods of the Lebanon" by Cassie Maroun-Paladin published in England by New Holland Press.

6 medium potatoes
11 oz. bulgar wheat (also called cracked wheat -you can find this anywhere now-usually in ethnic aisle of your food store.)
1 onion thinly sliced
4 ounces chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of allspice (if you do not have allspice, you need to get it. Very important in this dish)
1 tbsp dried mint
1/4 cup flour (optional)
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Put the bulgar in a bowl and pour boiling water over it, then let sit for 1/2 hour.
Cook potatoes in their skins in salted water until soft. Peel and mash. Squeeze out water from the bulgar.
Add the bulgar to the mashed potatoes with onion, parsley, spices, mint and salt and pepper. Moisten hands with water and knead mixture well. If mixture is too soft, add flour. Keep kneading until misture is firm. Press mixture into a lightly greased baking tray and cut into diamond shapes. Pour oil over it and bake in 350 degree oven for 40 minutes until golden.