I love recipes like tabouleh. Back in Australia, courtesy of my herb garden, I always had the ingredients on hand. Parsley, spring onions, burghal, olive oil, lemon juice and tomatos. It made for a quick and easy salad with grilled meat and the best thing was that it kept for a while. In fact, I was once told by a Lebanese lady at a restaurant that you had to leave the Tabouleh to soften before eating it.

Nothing I make compares to the amazing stuff from the hole-in-the-wall establishments you get in Greenacre and Auburn but hey…. we have to try.

I’ve recently joined the Quinoa band wagon. Confession: I never liked cous cous, it was gluggy and the taste was a bit meh. Now quinoa, I actually like…..I use it all the time. Now that our local Costco is stocking a big bag for about 10 bucks it’s no longer cost-prohibitive either.

Ingredients

• I medium bunch flat leaf parsley finely chopped (you don’t have to chop the stalks)
• 3 spring onions finely sliced
• Small red onion chopped
• a handful of cherry tomatoes quartered
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup Quinoa cooked to packed instructions and cooled
• salt to taste

I normally put the quinoa into a pot with a 2:1 ratio of water : quinoa. I bring it to the boil and turn the heat down to a simmer. Then I let the quinoa cook until all the water is absorbed. I like it with a bit of bite, I like the nuttiness. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even use chicken stock to cook it in!

Instructions

Place the olive oil and lemon juice in a bottle and shake together until well mixed

Note for next time – pick a bottle with a lid that fits. Otherwise, you will get showered in olive oil and lemon juice

Place parsley, spring onions, red onions and cherry tomatoes into a bowl with the quinoa.

Mix together

Add lemon dressing little by little until you are happy with the taste. I like mine really lemony and juicy

Add salt to taste

Tada!