I’m nonetheless digging into the contents of the dry items cabinet, deciding what I’d use for each day meals.

There was a whole unopened bundle of bulgur within the cabinet, and I took a few of it – albeit a small quantity – to make tabbouleh, utilizing this recipe present in a Lebanese cookbook. I prefer it as a result of the flavours are well-balanced, the textures of the wheat and parsley distinction pleasantly, and the brilliant colors of parsley and tomatoes are engaging.

As we’re a two-person family, I halved the recipe, and I made a number of substitutions, utilizing dried mint as an alternative of contemporary and grape tomatoes, which I had, as an alternative of huge ones, which I didn’t have. I estimated about six grape tomatoes to exchange every massive tomato, perhaps a bit of low.

Though bulgur is sometimes called cracked wheat, there’s a distinction.

To make bulgur, wheat grains are parboiled, dried, floor and sifted to separate the items into totally different sizes. In consequence, it cooks in a short time, and, as within the recipe that follows, soaking in water makes it comfortable sufficient to take pleasure in in some dishes.

Cracked wheat, used to make cracked wheat bread, breakfast cereals and pilafs, is a uncooked product, and due to this fact takes longer to cook dinner than bulgur.

Whenever you purchase bulgur, you would possibly see a quantity on the bundle, indicating the dimensions of the grind, with #1 being the best, and quantity 4 being extra-coarse. Some sources suggest utilizing quantity 2 bulgur for tabbouleh, however this one requires #1.

Because the phrase bulgur is a translation from Turkish, there are a number of English spellings, together with burghul as used within the recipe that follows, and bulghur.

Tabbouleh – Parsley-Wheat Salad

Aapted from “The Lebanese Kitchen,” St. Elijah’s Orthodox Church (Ottawa, Ont.) Girls Society, 1990.

125 mL (½ cup) fantastic cracked wheat (#1 burghul)

1.25 L-1.5 L (5-6 cups) parsley, nicely washed and finely chopped

250 mL (1 cup) contemporary mint, finely chopped, or 30 mL (2 tbsp) dried mint, crushed

8 inexperienced onions, chopped

4 massive tomatoes, finely chopped

10 mL (2 tsp) salt

2 mL (½ tsp) pepper

125 mL (½ cup) contemporary lemon juice or to style

125 mL (½ cup) olive oil or vegetable oil

Rinse bulgur (I used a fantastic sieve) and soak in chilly water for 20 minutes. Drain nicely, squeezing out extra moisture with palms, and place in a big bowl.

Add lemon juice, oil and seasoning to bulgur and put aside.

Mix parsley, mint, onions and tomatoes, and add to bulgur combination.

Toss simply earlier than serving.

To serve: lettuce leaves or tender grape leaves are sometimes used as an alternative of utensils to eat this salad. Merely scoop up salad utilizing the leaves.

Notes:

To boost the flavour of the salad, do the primary two steps nicely prematurely of serving.

A salad spinner, used earlier than chopping, dries parsley nicely and removes extra water.

You possibly can chop parsley, mint and inexperienced onions with a meals processor. It’s best of chop tomatoes by hand.

Tabbouleh will be ready forward of time.

There’s fairly an assortment of pastas and noodles within the cabinet, together with some medium egg noodles, good for utilizing in soups. Because it occurs, I’ve some do-it-yourself hen broth within the fridge, in addition to items of cooked hen, celery, carrots and inexperienced onions, all of the fixings for hen noodle soup. I like soup to be thick and chunky, however add extra broth for those who favor.

Rooster Noodle Soup

15 mL (1 tbsp) canola oil

250 mL (1 cup) chopped celery (embrace leaves if desired)

250 mL (1 cup) chopped carrots

½ massive leek, chopped fantastic, white half solely

900 mL-1 L (3¾ -4 cups) hen broth, do-it-yourself or industrial

375 mL (1½ cups) raw egg noodles

250 mL (1 cup) chopped cooked hen. (Leftover roast hen is sweet.)

salt and pepper, to style

2 inexperienced onions, chopped

In a 2 L saucepan, cook dinner celery, carrots and leeks in oil over medium warmth till greens begin to soften and colors brighten.

Add hen broth and noodles, convey to a boil over excessive warmth, scale back warmth and simmer till carrots and noodles are tender. Add chopped hen.

Season to style with salt and pepper.

Stir in chopped inexperienced onions simply earlier than serving.

Margaret Prouse, a house economist, writes this column for The Guardian each Friday. She will be reached by e-mail at [email protected].