“CORNISH” TABBOULEH - sort of!

I have renamed one of my favourite salad dishes, as virtually all the ingredients come from Cornwall, most from my own garden. Another great party dish that is perfect to serve at BBQs and with a cold buffet any time of the year. Make it at least 2 hours before you need it, to allow time for all the wonderful flavours to merge. Overnight is good as well.

When I discovered Bulgur Wheat a couple of decades ago and started making Tabbouleh, I later fiddled and adjusted the recipe to fit me and my tastes.  This is my Cornish version and I hope you like it. This cost me probably less than a £1 to make as I have all the herbs  outside my back door and the veg in a greenhouse. But if you need to buy the herbs it can work out fairly costly. [trust me, it is worth it]

To feed about 6 - 8 but very easily doubled or trebled.

Weigh 6 oz of Bulgur Wheat into a bowl, then cover with boiling water and leave for 30 mins, allowing it to rehydrate. It will triple in size. That’s all the cooking! Drain and cool.

While that is “cooking”, prepare:

about 4 or 5 inches of a cucumber, quartered longways, deseeded and finely chopped

2 medium/large tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and finely chopped

medium echallion shallot, finely chopped

zest of half a large lemon [juice too]

2 fl oz of Cornish Rapeseed Oil [so much nicer than Olive oil]

Fresh ground pepper and Sea Salt. Any really good salt. I used Himalayan Pink.

Huge handfuls of Parsley and Mint, chopped.

The herbs are the expensive part, as I mentioned above. If purchasing them you will need at least 2 extra large pots of each of the mint and parsley. As you can see from the photos, the herbs dominate and the aroma while you are mixing is incredible and so mouthwatering.

When the grains are cool, stir in the rapeseed oil, lemon juice and seasoning, check to make sure the seasoning is good. Then mix in all the rest of the ingredients before tipping into a serving bowl. Chill in the fridge. Just perfect.

Note- Tabbouleh is a middle eastern dish, most especially from Lebanon. And who came over to mine our tin +2000 years ago? Brought over their saffron too. The Phoenicians.

[Nowadays Lebanon!!!]. It’s a small world.