Tabouleh enfuso Style (Plum Balsamic, Lemon Olive Oil, Garlic Olive Oil)
/Side Dish Club recipes were designed to be produced by weight in grams so that nutrition information could be calculated so you will need a scale to replicate them.
Each recipe produces four servings for a side dish next to a main dish. This size is 115 grams or about 4 ounces (1/4 lb) in weight and about 3/4 cup in volume. For a full meal, you would double the serving size, and this recipe would produce two.
I love tabouleh, but it is not traditionally made with balsamic vinegar. So we have to call this version “enfuso style” since we apply several modifications to take advantage of enfuso ingredients. One of our customers who is a traditional tabouleh fan said enfuso style is her new favorite!
What you will need:
Bulgar wheat. Bob’s Red Mill is our favorite brand for ancient grains.
Fresh vine ripened or hot house tomato - 1 medium or 2 small
Fresh Italian parsley - 1 large bunch
Red onion - a small piece
Garbanzo beans, low or no salt - 1 can
Crumbled gorgonzola cheese. You may substitue blue cheese but there is a taste difference. You can purchase pre-crumbled, or buy in a block and crumble or chop yourself. Pre-crumbled is usually more expensive and also a little bit on the dry side.
Better Than Boullion (Vegetable or Chicken) - Better than Boullion is used in many side dish club recipes. We love it because it tastes super fresh and you can get it in low-salt versions which we prefer since these days almost everything is over salted. You can use either chicken or vegetable broth for this recipe depending on the flavor profile you prefer. We generally like to use chicken, but that is not a good option for vegetarians. To read more about this product, here is a link to the website for Better Than Boullion.
Plum Balsamic Vinegar
Lemon Olive Oil and GarlicOlive Oil - or - Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO), Garlic Olive Oil, and fresh lemon
Cook the bulgar wheat.
Measure out (see next section on measuring) 60 grams of raw bulgar wheat. Cook in accordance with package instructions, but add 1 Tablespoon of Better than Boullion to the warm cooking water. Make sure to stir in the boullion until it is dissolved in the water before adding the wheat or you will get sections of wheat with all of the boullion and some with none … yuck!
Once your bulgar wheat is cooked, measure out 131 grams and set it aside to cool in the refrigerator. It is not a perfect estimation of how much raw bulgar wheat it takes to produce a certain amount of cooked bulgar wheat so you may end up with a little extra.
Wash and dry your veggies.
You can do this while the bulgar wheat is cooling.
I always thoroughly wash my garden ingredients before using them. I create a vinegar wash (about 1 cup of white vinegar to a gallon of water) and place the garden ingredients into the vinegar wash for about 5 minutes before rinsing. This is just “me” as I worry about germs on fresh veggies. But the vinegar wash is certainly optional.
Also thoroughly dry your vegetables. You want to avoid using wet vegetables because the water on the vegetables will water down your dressing and thus your flavor.
You can wash your tomatoes and cucumbers and just pat them dry with a towel.
For your Italian parsley, I find it easiest to remove the leafy part from the stem before washing. After washing I spin them in a salad spinner and set them out to dry. If you want to accelerate the drying, you can put a fan set on low to blow are over them or pat them dry.
Drain and rinse your beans.
Empty the can of garbanzo beans separately into a colander and rinse until the water runs clear. Leave in colandar for water to drain.
Note that I peal the skin off of the garbanzo beans. This is not required, but will produce a nicer looking and more tender salad as the skin will start to come off anyway when you stir them into the salad and be a bit tough to chew.
Prepare and measure your other ingredients.
For measuring I suggest the following:
Set your scale on the counter and turn it on.
Make sure it is set to grams.
Set a large bowl on the side to hold all of your measured ingredients.
Set a smaller container on the scale to collect your individual ingredients
Tare out the scale to remove the weight of the container on the scale.
Next …
Italian parsley: If you removed the leafy part from the stem before washing, they are ready to chop. If not, so this now. Then lightly chop them. Put the chopped leaves into the bowl on the scale until you have 60 grams and then put them into the larger bowl. Replace the empty bowl onto the scale and re-tare so the scale shows zero.
Tomato: Slice your tomato and remove the seeds. You can set the seeds aside to use in any sauce. Dice the remaining tomato pulp and skin into small pieces. Place the tomato pieces into the bowl on the scale until you have 91 grams and then put into larger bowl. Return the bowl to the scale and re-tare the scale.
Cucumber: Slice the ends off of the cucumber and then slice in the long way into halves and then quarters. Remove most of the center seeds and save them with your tomato seeds for sauce. Slice each quarter down the long way again and then dice the long skinny strips into small pieces. Place cucumber pieces into the bowl on the scale until you have 131 grams and then put into larger bowl. Return the bowl to the scale and re-tare the scale.
Red Onion: Very finely dice red onion and place into the bowl on the scale until you have 17 grams and then place into the larger bowl. Replace the empty bowl onto the scale and re-tare so the scale shows zero.
Garbanzo beans: Measure out about 80 grams (beans weigh more than one gram so it will be apoximate) of raw garbanzo beans and place them into the larger bowl.
Gorganzola Cheese: Measure out 25 grams of crumbled gorganzola in your dish. Don’t place the cheese into the large bowl but set it aside as you will want to add it last.
Make your dressing.
Place a medium size mixing bowl on the scale.
Pour in 40 grams of dark plum balsamic vinegar.
Pour in 10 grams of Lemon Olive Oil and 5 grams of Garlic Olive Oil. (If you do not have Lemon Olive Oil, use 10 grams of EVOO, 10 grams of Garlic Olive Oil, and squeeze in the juice from 1/2 a medium size fresh lemon through a strainer so you don’t get seeds.)
Remove bowl from scale and whisk using a wire whisk briskly until ingredients are fully emulsified, i.e. thick, creamy, and not separating.
(Note that I tend to go light on dressing. Many side dish customers wanted a little more dressing and for them I would add extra on the side. For the dressing rich flavor increase the amount of each ingredient by 50%. Just note that this will affect the nutrition information.)
Assemble your side dish.
By now your bulgar wheat should be nice and cool, so it is time to bring all of the ingredients together.
Mix your dressing into your bulgar wheat until thoroughly mixed. This ensures that the dressing is fully distributed before adding the other ingredients.
Add in all of the other ingredients and mix or toss lightly so that everything is well distributed.
Add the gorganzola cheese and toss lightly. You can hold a little back to sprinle on the top when serving if you want to.
Nutrition info.
