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Yesterday I was lamenting about the absence of salad dressing and how lemon and lime are great but I wanted something real. Tarah sent me a link to a lot of raw or nearly raw dressing recipes which I read blearily in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep. Thank you Tarah, it was exactly what I needed to keep me busy! There were one or two that piqued my interest so I need to go back and check them out, but mostly all the ones that were close to legal for me were really just based in lemon juice.
Today it came to me I'd not even considered one of my all-time favorite salads, Tabbouleh. I make this frequently. I love the taste and it has a very basic lemon dressing. Ah, I see God was listening and heard my salad dressing cry despite my lemon angst. Thank you!
After treadmilling (new word! LOL) 1.6 miles and swimming another half mile today, I ran into Whole Foods to pick up some lettuce, parsley, & avocados. I love this lifestyle because I need no other section of the store, which is a huge time saver. On the way to check out I saw their fresh raw salsa, which I love. A quick label read made my heart jump with joy - it was gonna be legal with no oil and no sugar. It had salt as the last ingredient and I made an executive decision that whatever small amt of salt was added would be OK today and I gleefully popped it in the cart.
By the time I got home I was really, really hungry. I wasn't hungry after I swam so passed on my banana, which probably would have bridged the gap better had I eaten it. Once home I did not have time to make Tabbouleh because I needed to eat now, so instead I tossed half an avocado into a bowl with a chopped ripe tomato and cut some fresh corn off a cob and added a large scoop of salsa.
I sat down and ate in total nirvana. The salsa was so good, so satisfying, that I had seconds. I had to laugh when I saw that the main 'dressing' ingredient in the salsa was lime. Maybe I didn't need anything more real than that, after all. I'll be making this myself now, minus the salt.
Later for dinner I made Tabbouleh. I never liked it with Bulgar wheat so I never made it that way for us. Just the veggies and dressing. In the past when I'd make it I'd work at getting the oil/lemon/vinegar just right and have my daughter, who loves this stuff, taste it over and over til we got it just right. I had no recipe, I just winged it each time.
Well, this would be easier since I wasn't going to have to worry about getting the dressing just right. After thoroughly washing two big bunches of parsley I processed them in two batches, placing the first batch into a medium size bowl before processing the next. I added in 2 cups of chopped red grape tomatoes, a entire bunch of sliced white scallions, a half a chopped cucumber and then poured the juice of one lemon and one lime all over it. Done!
It was ever so slightly different in taste from my original version but definitely close enough, especially after the tomatoes and scallions and cucumber got into the mix. It became the familiar, addictive, beguiling mix that just begs you to eat more and more of it. That's the beauty of Tabbouleh. My daughter didn't even detect the missing ingredients and was surprised when I told her. I thought for sure she'd detect a change.
I enjoyed eating this more than words can say. It made my whole day. Plus, parsley is one of the more concentrated greens you can eat.
I'm going to be making/eating lots and lots of this!
Recipe:
2 large bunches of parsley
2 cups (or one small container) of red grape tomatoes (you can use regular tomatoes)
1 bunch of green onions (scallions)
1/2 cucumber
Juice of one lemon
Juice of one lime (or just use 2 lemons)
Thoroughly clean the parsley. It's one of the grittiest vegetables. I wash it once straight up in the sink then cut off the ends as close to the bushy part as possible then soak it in a lettuce spinner filled with cold water. Swish, rinse, rinse again under running water and then spin dry.
Hand chop the parsley or put it through a food processor. I've done it various 'sizes', from very chopped to fairly whole and just happen to prefer it chopped a lot smaller than larger. It's up to you.
Cut the red tomatoes in half
Slice the white part of the green onions, reserve and throw away the 'chive' part or save for another use.
Peel the cucumber half and then dice it.
Add all the vegetables to the chopped parsley. Pour the lemon and lime juice over it, toss and serve. This would also be perfect for my girls at BreastHealthOnline who follow the Healing Diet.
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