Garlicky Tofu Tabbouleh (Recipe #87)

        I was quite excited to see how this recipe was going to use bulgar, tofu, tomatoes, and fresh spices to come together to create a tabbouleh. I was quite impressed! This was a great dish and one that I will make again.

The most interesting part about this dish is how the bulgar is not cooked in simmering water (I have only ever cooked bulgur before). This recipe calls for salting tomatoes in a strainer over a bowl to catch their juice. I stirred the bulgar into tomato juice and lemon juice to help the grain soften. I prepared tofu sauteed in a pan with lots of garlic (yum!). The last part was very easy. Combine the tomatoes, bulgar, tofu, parsley, mint, scallions, and top with a dressing. The dressing was made from oil, cayenne, salt, and lemon juice. Each aspect of this dish had a lot of flavor. The bulgar soaked in the juices from the dressing. The tofu had a lot of flavor from the garlic. The tomatoes provided a freshness and color. The herbs also provided a much needed freshness amongst the acidic and oil based dressing. Every bite of this dish had an incredible amount of delicious flavor! I really enjoyed it!

The recipe description explains how the chefs decided that this dish had the potential to be a main rather than a side dish. Personally, I would re-do this recipe as a side dish. I enjoyed eating it as the main dish this time, but I just felt like the meal was not complete. I would love to see this with some roasted vegetables or even as a side to a veggie dog. This recipe had a lot of flavor! I would make this again as written, but prepared as a side dish.

Taste: 10/10

Level of difficulty: 2/5--this was not difficult, rather it was time consuming.

Notes for next time: I liked this and would make this as a side dish!