Let's Eat!

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​Let’s share a recipe…..talking about delicious food can be really fun.  It reminds us that food can have a rewarding presence in our life—while it nourishes our cells, nurtures our soul, cultivates and feeds relationships, and more.  Satisfaction is so important.
 




This recipe is shared by request---I described it at Nourish 360, our monthly free store tour at Market of Choice in Bend, and one participant said, please share it!  Actually, she said, “please write a cookbook,” but I don’t have time for that.  Plus, I’m really not that great of a cook.  I’ll prove that, here:
 
Mediterranean Bulgur Salad
This salad is best enjoyed in the summer, when the ingredients are freshest and growing in my backyard, but turns out my taste buds don’t have a calendar and they want the salad NOW.  So, who am I to argue with that?  In season or not, the ingredients are crisp, tasty, and exciting to my mouth.  I make a huge batch because I love this stuff.
I don’t like to measure.  That’s why I don’t bake.  So this recipe is a dab of this and a bunch of that. It’s hard to screw it up, unless you use WAY TOO MUCH oil.  Otherwise, you’re golden.  The recipe is a decent source of fiber and protein (thanks Bulgur!) as well as vitamin C (Italian Parsley) and love.  Lots of love.
 
Ingredients:

• Bulgur wheat 1-2 cups depending on how much you love it.
• Water, 2 x the amount of bulgur.
• 2-4 Roma tomatoes.  Other tomatoes are a-okay but the size and shape of the Roma is nice for this salad.
• 1 bunch scallions (fancy word for green onions).  ½ of a red onion would sub nicely.
• 1 bunch Italian parsley.  I use the whole thing, because this stuff is delicious.  
• 3-4 large lemons. 
• Drizzle (couple tablespoons?) extra virgin olive oil, although flaxseed oil would be nice as well and would add a little more omega-3 fats for those of us watching our cholesterol.  Either way, it’s amazing.  Oil, like salt, is an ingredient that we can start with a dab and always add more if needed but once you go overboard it’s GASP too late!
• ½ ish cup feta cheese.  Add more or less to taste.

 
Directions:

• Cook the bulgur—dump it in a pot with 2 x the amount of water to bulgur.  Example: 1 cup bulgur plus 2 cups water.  Bring it to a boil, then turn it to low and cover it.  Cook for about 12 more minutes.  Remove from heat, put it in a large bowl and stick it in the fridge to cool.
• Wash all the veggies—even the lemons.  
• While the bulgur is cooling, chop your tomatoes, small dice the onion, chop the parsley (I use stems and all just cut it up finely).
• Add the tomatoes, onion, and parsley to the bulgur.  
• Roll the lemons on the cutting board, applying downward pressure to loosen the juices.  Cut lemon in half and squeeze them into the salad.  Can squeeze through a slotted spoon if you’re worried about seeds.
• Drizzle a dab of oil.
• Add in the feta.
• Toss and celebrate!  You can eat it immediately, or you can let it sit in the fridge for a while so the flavors marry.  I just like to say, “flavors marry” because it makes me feel like a super fancy chef.  But seriously, the longer it sits in the fridge the tastier it gets.  

Eat all of your salad within 3 days.  Company, colds, and left-overs have a 3 day max—words to live by.
 
Enjoy! 

​Want to talk about food some more?  Reach out! nutrition@synergyhealthbend.com

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