Tabbouleh, Asian Style

Contrary to perception, Bruce and I are not all about meat all the time. Admittedly, local beef, pork, and chicken are about all we can lay our hands on right now. It is iron-cold New England winter at our house and veggies are as rare as liberals in Alabama. (And as desiccated. But perhaps I digress.)

Anyway, Bruce and I do go in for vegetarian delights--a lot of the time. So today's lunch is an Asian-Inspired Tabbouleh. 

There's no reason to stick to the traditional bulgur wheat salad: parsley, tomatoes, and mint. Especially since tomatoes in the market are tasteless hockey pucks. (Are there tasty hockey pucks?)  Having tossed out the traditional, here's what Bruce did:

He brought a medium saucepan of water to boil on the stove.

He then poured 1 2/3 cups tabbouleh (bulgur wheat) into a mixing bowl--and also poured in 1 2/3 cups boiling water. He stirred once or twice, covered the bowl, and set it aside at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Once the bulgur was soaking and covered, he brought the remaining water in the saucepan back to a boil over high heat. Meanwhile, he put 8 ounces chopped snow peas in a large mixing bowl. He poured the remaining boiling water over them, set the bowl aside for 2 minutes, drained the snow peas into a colander in the sink, and transferred them to a salad bowl.

And here's where he left the traditional tabbouleh recipe in the dust. He added the following to that bowl with the snow peas:
6 medium scallions, thinly sliced
1 medium red bell pepper, cored and chopped
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Chinese black vinegar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar

Chinese black vinegar? It's an Asian condiment, made from fermented glutinous rice and malt. You can find it at most Asian markets or their online outlets. Don't use the sweetened variety. And in a pinch, substitute 4 teaspoons balsamic vinegar and 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce.

Finally, he uncovered the soaking bulgur, broke it up with a fork, and stirred it into the salad bowl with all the over ingredients, tossing everything until it was as varied and mixed up as a good salad. Or a freshman dorm. In other words, no like-to-like pairings whatsoever. I ask you: do college administrators try to make it that hard? Why does someone who reads Tolstoy get paired up with a metal head? My freshman year, I was assigned this guy who wanted to. . . . Oh, wait, lunch. Right. Anyway, he covered the tabbouleh salad and refrigerated it for a couple hours. And now we're ready to dig in. I did my part: unwrapped the whole wheat pitas from their bag. Whew. Exhausting contribution. But it was still a perfect lunch.

Comments

[susan ginsburg]

This is great. Food and Dreydl look terrific.