Fresh seasonal ingredients are always a welcome at our place and we embrace them open heartedly with both hands. Be it green vegetables or some lusciously juicy fruit, they always rule the roost in our dinner menus. I love the way they create magic together. And if you are regular here, you must have known by now that how often I preach about using fresh seasonal ingredients in our recipes. Even I can’t think of cakes and bakes without the seasonal foods. Not only they add to the taste, but they also bring along the vibrant lively colours with them.
So this time, I am back with yet another stunningly beautiful, amazingly delicious and super healthy Lebanese salad, Grilled Corn & Pomegranate Tabbouleh, which is I think is one of the versatile salad of the Palestinian origin. A classic Tabbouleh is all about parsley and less of the the Bulgar (cracked wheat). It’s a well seasoned and sharp medley of lots of fresh parsley, mint leaves, red juicy tomatoes and some al dente bulgar wheat.
The proportion of parsley to bulgar varies across the regions of Palestine and Lebanon. I had this salad sometime back at a restaurant where they had prepared it with Quinoa (one of the in-vogue super food these days) instead of bulgar. Now for me, both these grains are super expensive being here in India. So I started reading about Bulgar on the internet. Here in India, we consume a lot of cracked wheat (called Dalia here) and thought if I could substitute bulgar with cracked wheat.
They differ at the processing stage. Bulgar is partially steamed where as cracked wheat (dalia) is completely raw. After I knew this fact, it got easier for me to play around with the substitution. And of course, how could this be without the use of seasonal produce.
The salad was bejewelled further by the ruby red pearls of pomegranate and hearty and wholesome grilled corn. This became a wonderful concoction. We had this in dinner with falafel, hummus and pita bread followed by baklava spiced panna cotta (I will write about this in my next recipe post). Everyone had a rave review about the tabbouleh.In fact, few of my friends who just can’t stand cracked wheat (dalia), they actually loved it and asked for second helping. It’s one of those super healthy salads, which is definitely going to be our family favourite.
- 30 gm bulgar wheat or cracked wheat
- 2 large tomatoes, ripe but firm
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 4 large bunch of parsley or coriander
- 2 bunches of mint
- seeds of one pomegranate
- 1 corn on the cob
- 1 small cucumber, chopped finely
- 2 tsp cumin powder
- 80 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp sumac
- salt and black pepper
- If using bulgar, put it in fine sieve and run under cold water until the water coming through looks clear and most of the starch has been removed. If using cracked wheat (dalia), roast it in a pan on medium heat until lightly golden. Add one cup of water, cover and cook until all the water is absorbed. Let cool completely. Once cooled, separate the cooked grains with a fork. Transfer bulgar/cracked wheat in a mixing bowl.
- Grill the corn on a barbecue or on a medium flame, until lightly charred. Run a knife along the length of the cob to separate the seeds from the cob. Transfer to the above mixing bowl.
- Dice the tomatoes, shallot and add to the mixing bowl.
- Chop the parsley and pick the mint leaves off the stems and add to the bowl.
- Finally add lemon juice, cumin powder, sumac, pomegranate seeds, cucumber, olive oil and some salt and pepper and mix well. Taste and add more salt and pepper and lemon juice if you like and serve.
