Friday, August 01, 2008

TABBOULEH!


Isn't it pretty?

Sorry it's been a while. I have been planning this big post to commemorate my 2 year anniversary of a 100% raw diet, but that was 3 weeks ago and it hasn't quite come to fruition yet...
So instead I give you a big fat bowl of tabbouleh. I found this meal to be fascinating to me, both in taste and texture; fascinating is good, by the way. ;-) It is not something I have ever eaten before (though I've made it for others a million times), in fact I don't know if I ever even ate non-raw tabbouleh. I do think it is a very easy dish to convert into raw though, if you like it cooked i imagine you would like it raw.
The reason I have never made it for myself is that I am not 100% comfortable using oils of any kind. This is not because of the fat content, it is simply because extracting oil from anything, be it an olive or a hemp seed, will alter the constitution of the oil and is a form of processing that I'm not entirely happy with. BUT I was really hankering for a big bowl of tabbouleh and, as you probably know if you read this blog much, when my body is asking for something I give it what it wants. I must admit, I have had some emotional/psychological stressors in my life recently and I know I haven't been taking 100 proper care of myself, so I wondered if I was a bit low in iron and that's why my body wanted all that iron-rich parsley.
Whatever the reason, I'm glad I made it because it was really very tasty. The dressing used 1/4 cup of organic, cold-pressed sunflower oil and I felt absolutely no ill effects from that, so I intend to be making it again!
Because I'm so nice, I want you to be able to enjoy this recipe as much as I did, so here it is:

Salad ingredients:
4 bunches parsley
about 300grams cherry tomatoes
1/3 cup almonds

Dressing ingredients:
1/4 cup cold-pressed oil (olive, sunflower, I'm thinking hemp would be great...)
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 small clove garlic (optional)

Finely chop the parsley in a food processor. Halve or quarter (if big) the cherry tomatoes. Chop the almonds in a food processor briefly until just crushed (not powdered!). Blend dressing ingredients in a blender then put everything in a big bowl and toss until well combined. Serve and enjoy.

Hope life is going wonderfully for everyone. I will try to get back with that anniversary post soon!