My friend photographer Caroline Montgomery (portfolio), who is also a great friend of Glade Road Growing, came by my apartment 8/4/2014 to shoot this recipe. All of the photos are hers except the collage of ingredients at the bottom of the post, which I used for a placeholder until I received hers on 8/5/2014. I first published this post at 7:59 pm on 8/4/2014 and updated it at 6:52 pm on 8/5/2014 after receiving Caroline's photographs.
*
The August 5 farm share from Glade Road Growing is slated to include tomatoes, beets, Rosa de Tropea onions (a red mild torpedo onion traditional to Tropea in Southern Italy), Greenstar lettuce mix, kale, and peppers. Here's a tabbouleh recipe for the tomatoes, onions and peppers. I'll post some of her photographs here as soon as I receive them, probably tomorrow.
*
Serves 6 for a main course or 12 for a mezze (small plates)
Tabbouleh is a dish found in countries including Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, and other parts of the Middle East. It's traditionally made of tomatoes, finely chopped parsley, mint, and onion, and seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and sometimes garlic. Bulgur or coucous is often added. My variation adds green peppers, cucumbers and garbanzo beans. It substitutes cilantro for the parsley and mint and cooked soft white wheat berries for the bulgar or couscous.
1. The night before, in a heavy bottomed stainless steel saucepan, cover 1 cup raw soft white wheat berries with 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Cover, turn down heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes and then soak until cool. Rinse well and repeat leave overnight. The next morning rinse one more time and simmer until soft and rinse and cool.
Treat 1 cup of dried garbanzo beans in the same manner. This will yield three cups of each.
2. Finely mince 2 TB of onions, 4 TB of green peppers, 2 medium tomatoes, 1 cup cilantro leaves, 1 cucumber and two cloves of garlic.
3. In a large bowl combine the beans, wheat and vegetables. Add 1 tsp. cumin powder and toss.
4. Cut lemon in half, reserving several thin slices for a garnish. Squeeze lemon into salad. Add 1-2 TB of extra virgin olive oil, if desired and 1/2 tsp. sea salt. You can also add freshly ground black pepper if you like. Adjust seasoning to your taste.
5. Garnish with more cilantro leaves and the lemon slices. Serve.
