Tempting the Taste Buds with Tabbouleh

This wasn't a very exciting food week for me. For one, I had declared a moratorium on all bread products as of Monday. And two, I was sequestered in the Guernsey Gardens of Greenpoint, focused on two writing projects. Third, I spent three of the five weekdays watching the April showers beat down on my wooden walkway, lighting crackling through the sky, lacking in desire to venture beyond the comfort of my favorite afghan, the warm puppy at my side, and the Macbook perched atop my lap.

Most of my homemade meals this week consisted of assorted grains, such as wild rice and bulghur and a colorful assortment of complementary fresh vegetables. Dinners weren't very exciting, but, for lunch, I reignited my love affair with tabbouleh. When I was growing up as a vegetarian child of hippy parents, I was indulging in hummus, falafel, tabbouleh, and black beans and rice when most kids were too young to pronounce much beyond Chef Boyardee or fish sticks. At one point I considered this a cross to bear, longing for a cookie jar full of Oreos or a cabinet stocked with canned green beans and creamed corn. When I was growing up, vegetarianism wasn't hip and cool; it was different, and it was weird. Now I am grateful for being raised to see the culinary spectrum through a different lense, thankful for growing up in a family that looked at meals as something more a hunk of bloody meat and mound of white potatoes.

A few weeks ago, on a whim, I picked up a box of the Near East tabbouleh mix that consistently stocked my the kitchen cupboards of my youth. For weeks it sat there, tempting me, but the right foodportunity never presented itself. Until this week, when, lacking in motivation to venture into the rain to find anything else on which to nosh, I ripped open the box. An hour later, I combined the grains with some olive oil, fresh lemon juice, cucumber, red onion, carrot, and mushrooms. I tossed the mixture together and then rolled it up in a jalapeno and cilantro wrap, my new favorite culinary accessory, with some spicy hummus and arugula. This lunchtime decadence, I tell you, is a taste sensation. Various recipes call for tomatoes, parsley, scallion, and cubed feta cheese. I say have at whatever you like, as long as it's cold, fresh, and crunchy.

Tabbouleh is nutritious, delicious, colorful, and satisfying.