Quinoa Tabbouleh

 

  Or as we often see it here in the states, Tabouli. This dish absolutely screams spring and summer. I wasn't real familiar with this dish until very recently and I am so glad I was exposed to it. I have a lot of parsley to use up from the garden and I recently started using Quinoa just to check it out, so this event was timely. The recipe I was exposed to planted the Tabbouleh seed, but after some research it was immediately labeled inadequate. The recipe didn't call for enough parsley (Tabbouleh is a parsley salad after all) and it didn't have any lemon juice either, so I made my own recipe:

Quinoa Tabbouleh

1 c parsley (coarse chopped, flat leaf)

1/2 c cilantro (coarse chopped)

1 c quinoa (cooked and cooled)

1 med cucumber (coarse dice)

2 Roma tomatoes (seeds removed, coarse dice)

1/4 med onion (small diced)

5-6 mint leaves (coarse chopped)

1 clove garlic (garlic pressed)

2 tbsp lemon juice

6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Mix ingredients well and serve chilled.

TTFN

B

Basil Cilantro Pesto

  With plenty of basil and cilantro coming out of the garden, some experimentation was in order. After a little research I came up with the following recipe:

Basil Cilantro Pesto

2/3 c packed basil leaves (washed)

2/3 c packed cilantro stalk and leaves (washed)

1/3 c grated Parmesan cheese

1 tbsp roasted sunflower seeds (instead of pine nuts)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 clove garlic

1/2 c extra virgin olive oil

Blend the first 7 ingredients in a food processor (about a minute). With the food processor running, slowly drizzle the olive oil into the mixture (about a minute).

I was really happy with this recipe and will definitely make it again. There are plenty of uses for pesto including pasta sauce, pizza sauce and crusty bread topper to name a few.

TTFN

B.