Our Sunday night dinner consisted of tabbouleh salad and homemade rye bread served with a mustard seed gouda and an English malt whisky cheddar.   There is something about Sunday that makes me think of Bloody Mary's so I whipped up a few to go along with our dinner.

Tabbouleh is a Lebanese herb salad made with parsley, mint, tomato, onion, bulgur, olive oil and lemon.  Most recipes, including mine, have increased the ratio of bulgur to parsley and added an array of fresh vegetables.  The traditional way to eat tabbouleh is by using lettuce leafs as “scoops”.  Wilson and I were craving something salty to go along with our Bloody Mary so we deviated far from the Middle Eastern roots of this salad and used tortilla chips to scoop up the tabbouleh!

Tabbouleh Salad

1 cup bulgur

1 pint cherry tomatoes, diced small (about 2 cups)

½ English cucumber, diced small

½ red bell pepper, diced small

1 bunch green onions (white and most of green), diced

1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, minced

½ cup mint leaves, minced (1 oz package)

Dressing

zest of 1 lemon

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

¼ cup olive oil

1 tsp kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

Place bulgur in a large bowl, add 1 cup* boiling water and let sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour, or until the bulgur is tender.

Meanwhile prepare the vegetables and herbs, placing them in another large bowl. Cut the vegetables by hand, very small, as if making salsa. Mince the whole bunch of flat-leaf parsley, removing any thick stems. Remove the mint leaves from the stem of the plant before mincing.

In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon zest, fresh lemon juice, olive oil salt and pepper. Pour over salad and toss to combine.

When the bulgur is tender, combine with the prepared vegetables and toss with the dressing. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with lettuce leaves to use as scoops or, for a Mexican twist, use tortilla chips. 

*Follow the directions on your brand of bulgur. I use Bob's Red Mill, which calls for an equal ratio of bulgur to water but some other brands require that you use more water and then drain the bulgur into a strainer, shaking the strainer and gently pressing out the excess moisture.

Options:

Use rainbow cherry tomatoes or any good seasonal tomato.
A regular cucumber is just fine if you can not find an English cucumber (which has less seeds and not as tough of a skin as a regular cucumber).
Red onion is fine to substitute for green onions, or use a combination.

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Bloody Mary

Since tomatoes are in season, I made my own tomato juice by blending a few pounds of garden fresh tomatoes (about 6 cups diced) with a fennel bulb and a jalapeno.  I then added 3 T. Worcestershire sauce, 1 T. extra-virgin olive oil, the juice and zest of 1 lime, 1 1/2 tsp celery salt and a generous amount of coarse ground black pepper, blended well, and made any adjustments to taste.  Typically you would add Tabasco to a Bloody Mary but it wasn’t necessary because I blended a whole jalapeno into the juice instead. 

To serve, I filled a tall glass with jalapeno ice cubes, 3 oz citrus vodka and poured in my spiced tomato sauce.  For garnish, I used a fennel frond, a pepper jack stuffed green onion and pickled okra.  This is much more then a drink, it’s a whole meal!

The Food Network gave me the idea for the jalapeno ice cubes.  You simply blend 3 jalapenos, 1/2 lemon (rind and all), about 2 T. cilantro or basil, salt and pepper with 4 cups of cold water and freeze in ice trays.

As the jalapeno ice cubes melt your Bloody Mary gets spicier.  Careful, it can get too spicy.  I recommend you use mostly regular ice cubes with 1 or 2 jalapeno ice cubes added in.