Tabouli

This is a wonderful and refreshing Lebanese salad. There is some initial work involved because of all the chopping, but once you have everything ready (see the ingredients picture below) it takes but a second to mix it and bring it to the table. This is such a nice accompaniment to dishes that call for something on the side but you are in the mood neither for a green salad nor cooked vegetable. It is an indispensable member of any appetizer presentation (called “Mazza”) for a Middle Eastern meal. Normally bulgar (cracked wheat) is used to break up the dense vegetables of this dish, but here we cleverly use chopped walnuts. I use the term “cleverly” because so many people have told me they thought this dish was off limits and they never thought of using walnuts in place of the cracked wheat!