Kuwait City to Beverly Hills..salad days

Being that it is such a simple salad, and the ingredients are found on nearly every continent, it is surprising to me how a Tabouleh salad can vary so much from place to place.
Tabouleh is a nutritionally dense salad very high in Vit C and fiber 

In Kuwait it was always made with just lots of freshly washed and dried parsley and hand chopped mint, tomatoes, cucumbers ( peeled and seeds removed) and sometimes red onion, with large grain bulgur wheat, salt and pepper, and lemon juice and olive oil dressing.
This was also prepared fresh 24/7, and it was not unusual for me to be preparing it at 3am after my boss's wife's  night on the town, in  the  large apartments in London's Park Lane.
In those days it was always made from scratch, fresh.

Traveling around, the biggest eye opener was Beverly Hills where the prime ingredient was Bulgur wheat, and a small grain at that. With scatterings of herbs and vegetables. It looked like it had been made in a food processor too.

Good Tabouleh is made fresh and served fresh.
It is NOT  dressed until it is served, sometimes even dressing on the dining table.
And it is always best to use large grain bulgur wheat, so that it doesn't soak up all the dressing, it is steamed and dried before adding to the salad.

It is also a  salad that should comprise of 80% herbs & vegetables, 15 % bulgur wheat and 5% dressing.

The ratio of spearmint to parsley should be 25:75 I find that common mint or spearmint give better flavors than peppermint which can overpower the parsley.
But the ratio can vary according to personal preference.

For a main course salad I have added chickpeas cooked with cumin and turmeric to add protein, and this will be served with toasted pitta breads.

Please do not make it the way I saw in Beverly Hills, do not add enough bulgur wheat so the salad is white/ivory.
It should be a colorful mix with strong green overtones.
Enjoy the Photographs for today's deliveries:

The hot weather of late has everything blooming early

The hand chopped base of the tabouleh salad

Fresh lemons for the salad dressings

Macadamia nuts, red kidney beans for the Roasted Sweet Potato warm salad

fresh lemon juice for the salad dressings

Roasted yams and sweet potatoes for the warm salad

The sauteed vegetables for the pasta to be topped with walnuts ( Vegan dish)

previous 2 The hand chopped chickpea tabouleh in all it's glory

The sliced Moroccan inspired anise-corn, sour dough breads