Meze, Part 4: Lentil Tabouleh

My apologies to any middle eastern readers who might stumble upon my latest posts. I take it as a personal insult when foreigners make bastardized versions of mexican food, and yet, here I am, tweaking a salad that can pretty much be considered sacred in the arabic world.

It actually turned out pretty good, if I may say so myself, and after a little research, I found that there are a number of variations all across the region, so my idea of substituting lentils for bulgur didn't seem so bad.

Tabbouleh (or tabule, or tabouli), is arabic for "little spicy", and it combines pretty much all the basic flavors you will find at a meze table in one amazing salad.


So let's get cooking: Remember those lentils left over from last week's post? Yeah, that's what I used here. So start with 3 cups of cooked lentils, following the previously posted method, and add a large bunch of finely chopped parsley.

NOT cilantro, player!

To that, you will add 3 large roma tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped.

No finger chunks! I'm a fuckin kitchen ninja!

Next, take whatever kind of onion you have and finely chop about 1/3 of a cup of it and add it to the mix. You can also add garlic, but I used scallions and that would have been overkill.

Dress the salad by adding 1/2 a cup of olive oil and 1/2 a cup of lemon juice. Season with sea salt. It's ALWAYS sea salt with me. Unless I cook with Himalayan pink salt (which is actually not from Nepal). In that case, you will be warned.

Straining the seeds out of SEEDLESS lemons... fucking smart, hater

AWESOMENESS

Often served along lettuce leaves

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Tabbouleh (feeds a lot of people)
3 cups lentils (or, if you're going purist, hydrated bulgur)
1 large bunch of parsley, finely chopped (Lebanese tabbouleh tends to have a lot more)
3 roma tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped
1/3 of a cup onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup olive oil + 1/2 cup lemon juice
Sea salt and pepper

Optional: finely chopped cucumbers, mint, garlic and if you're going Turkish, pomegranate juice and tomato paste

1. Throw everything in a bowl
2. Let it rest for a few hours in the fridge
3. Awesomeness

Cooking Lessons 1: Parsley and Cilantro are NOT interchangeable

When I was 6, I had a hard time telling cabbages and iceberg lettuces appart. This only happened a couple of times, and after being ridiculed by my parents I made it my mision in life to know as much about food as humanly possible.

I'm pushing 30 now, and it baffles the shit out of me the way grown people confuse parsley and cilantro. But I won't ridicule you, unnamed herb-ilitterate friend (even though I should). I will enlighten you. Think of me as your culinary Bill Nye. Let me show you:

Left: Flat Leaf Parsley / Right: Cilantro

While both plants belong to the Apiaceae familly, Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) and Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) are two very different plants, with different cultivation methods and aromatic compounds.


Parsley was first domesticated in the mediterranean, and owes its grassy smell to a compound called apiol (1-allyl-2,5-dimethoxy-3,4-methylenedioxybenzene). Also known as parsley camphor, apiol is also found in celery, and has been known to cause abortions when ingested in moderate doses since the times of Hipocrates. It was even sold in tablets in the US during the late 19th century for this purpose. Large doses can potentially lead to kidney and liver failure.

Cilantro, on the other hand, has a less grassy and more citrusy overtone, mainly due to the presence of large ammounts of undecadiennal, a volatile compound constituted by at least 12 subfractions. It also shares some aldehydes with the stink bubg nymph, but its detection by humans varies widely. This was the the basis for the first genetic studies in humans, since it is linked to the presence of the TAS2R38 gene. People with this gene detect a much wider range of bitter tastes, and automatically dislike the herb, describing it as "bitter" and "soapy".

Now you know.

Source: Potter, T. L.Essential oil composition of cilantro J. Agric. Food Chem. 1996, 44, 1824– 1826

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