Tabouli

We eat a lot of quinoa here in various different guises. Breakfast, lunch or dinner will often find quinoa on our table. One of the ways that I've found to feed my family more of this protein packed grain is to make tabouli, which is of course traditionally made with bourgul - steamed, cracked wheat. After reading some literature years ago I came to the understanding that our wheat intake was just too much and set about changing some of our favourite recipes. We don't actually have any wheat allergies in our family but none the less wheat does make it's way into too much of our food.....and I don't mean just my families intake but in general, wheat is a staple - bread, pasta, cakes and all sorts of other foods are made or thickened with wheat. 

Originally I made tabouli with millet but when quinoa became The New Big Thing and I read up about that little power packed grain, I switched to using it.
This recipe was given to me by a friend a long time ago - I have changed bits along the way but this is pretty much how I make it now.

Quinoa Tabouli 

2-3 cups cooked, cooled quinoa
1 very, very large bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped
5 tomatoes, diced
2 or 3 large cucumbers, diced
1 red onion, chopped
Sprig of fresh mint, chopped
   About 1/2 - 1 cup sliced deseeded black olives, chopped

Dressing
Juice of 4 lemons
1/2 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
Lots of good salt
Freshly grated black pepper

As you can see in the photo's, I just throw it all into the bowl and then add the dressing and stir.
You need to use a lot of lemon juice and salt to really give a tangy flavour. And I like plenty of cold pressed olive oil.
Please experiment with amounts - when I have more parsley I use a super sized bunch and it is really delicious with loads!! Lots of tomato is Good! Grated zucchini added is Good too! Really it's all that dressing that makes it so delicious! 

Sorry, but as usual this is a bit vague with actual quantites. We eat ALOT and there are quite a few of us, so I have over the years, gotten used to automatically tripling and quadrupling recipes - consequently now I only know how to do LARGE amounts!! I think my recipes never turn out quite how the book intended because I always add more of the cheapest ingredient to make it stretch further. The family has never (well, ok not often!) complained though, so I don't think I'll be changing the winning formula now!!