Tabbouleh

3 cups of parsley weighes 75 grams. I really wish NYTimes would make the effort to offer the weight of ingredients. Knowing the weight prevents waste and guessing, 3 cups is hard to figure out and bunches differ store to store coast to coast

Happy you featured this authentic recipe. My Lebanese family has always used curly parsley for tabbouleh. Its what creates the volume against the bulgur and tomato and it's texture is better suited to salads.

Here's a suggestion for preparing the bulgur. Put the bulgur in the basket of the coffee maker with a clean filter. Pour a pot full of cold water in as though you were making coffee. Bulgur is ready to go in a few minutes without a lot of fuss. I learned that from my grandson who has worked in big catering kitchens.

Omitting the step to soak the bulgur works beautifully and saves time/dirty dishes. I made sure to put the lemon juice and tomatoes directly on the bulgur and within 2 hours, it was soft. Also, 1/8 c cup of olive oil seemed like enough, otherwise there will be a lot of oil floating around at the bottom of the bowl. Prep time is closer to 45', by the time you pick the leaves from the parsley and mint, and chop finely. This is a refreshing and delicious summer salad.

Two tips I learned from Kenji that might help: 1. Gently peel the garlic and blend it whole with the lemon juice. This will give you the garlic flavor without the raw bite of raw garlic. The acid inhibits the chemical reaction caused when raw garlic encounters oxygen, which is what creates most of the harshness. This also allows you to use more garlic. 2. Acid isn't what wilts greens--oil does. To keep the bright green color while storing, stir in the olive oil right before serving

This is Lebanese tabouleh - the parsley is the bright and shining star, not the bulgar.

While far from authentic -don't yell at me- quinoia makes a good substitution of you cannot eat wheat. The texture and flavour come out very similar.

The way my grandma taught me was to rinse the bulghar wheat quickly and then soak in plenty of lemon juice for half an hour before making the salad. She got the recope from an Israeli friend at her retirement home in Florida.

there are a number of grinds of bulgur available. She recommended "fine" . A coarser grind would take longer to absorb the water

Real tabbouleh has no garlic in it. The Lebanese see tabbouleh in a very strict way, and garlic is not even optional! On the other hand, some cooks add a pinch of 7 spices.

Too much for authentic tabbouleh. It should be very green with only specks of bulgur. If you add a lot of bulgur you are making an American salad.

This is very similar to my grandmother's recipe, with one big difference. After lightly rinsing the bulgar wheat, she'd soak it in the lemon juice. The proportions are almost exactly the same. She always said one big thin-skinned lemon for one big bunch of parsley, and have another on hand in case.

And middle eastern country to middle eastern country. Grandma would have measured by handfulls and pinches no matter what store or coast she shopped at/lived on. Make it twice and see how you'd adjust for your own palate.

I like very much & do not discriminate who made or where you came from. I love you all but God bless loves you more.

Great flavor but would next double the amount of Bulgar wheat. Served with Melissa Clark's Roasted Halibut with Lemons, Olives and Rosemary. So good!