When life gives you parsley, make like Fresh Tart and whip up a batch of quinoa tabbouleh.
by OnSugar Blog
When life gives you parsley, make like Fresh Tart and whip up a batch of quinoa tabbouleh.
While the rest of my garden is toast, the parsley lives on, just begging me to make tabbouleh salad. Except tabbouleh is made with bulgur, which is wheat, which I can't eat. Damn it!
Enter quinoa, the grain that is conveniently a gluten-free seed, hey. I'm not as obsessed with quinoa as some, but in a salad like this, its nutty crunchiness is perfectly tabboulehesque...in fact, you would likely not realize you weren't eating traditional tabbouleh salad if someone (like me) didn't point it out.
And except for all the substitutions I made, because that is one of the best things about tabbouleh — it welcomes just about any vegetable or nut you have knocking around in your kitchen. Zucchini not cucumbers? Fine! Roasted red peppers instead of tomatoes? Lovely! Pistachios in place of pine nuts? Great!
No matter the salad ingredients, I always add lemon zest, toasted cumin and coriander seeds, and toasted sesame oil to the dressing to really pop the flavor. The recipe below is vegan, but feel free to cook the quinoa in chicken stock, or toss in crumbled feta cheese and/or pieces of tender chicken for further popping.
Keep reading for her recipe.
Every week, our office receives a CSA box full of seasonal fruit. Recently, it contained a ton of unripe pears, so I knew I had to try out 
The simple pickling brine combines equal parts water, sugar, and rice vinegar and then salt to taste. Weighing down the contents with another bowl prevents oxidation and helps speed up the fermenting process. 
These pickled pears will awaken your palate. They retain their crisp, crunchy texture while soaking up the rice vinegar and sugar. Adding a little salt on the outside rounds out the sharp vinegar flavor. Eat them as you would other pickles: a few nested on the side of an egg breakfast, sliced thin and placed inside a sandwich for lunch, or alongside an Asian stir-fry. 
