Fitness Friday: The Power of Parsley: Tabouleh Salad Recipe

The Power of Parsley: Plus a Recipe for Tabouleh Salad

By Carolyn Harrington, Holistic Health Practitioner and Founder of Maty’s Healthy Products

Wouldn’t it be great if we could feel healthy every day? Sadly, we’ve all had those days when you don’t. You’re not sick, you just feel unhealthy. Sometimes we overdo it by eating too lavishly or working too hard. I know I get that achy, bloated feeling when I overdo it. There have been times when I just feel exhausted. It’s not a good feeling.

When this happens, I like to bring my system back into balance so I can start to feel good again. One sure-fire way that helps me bounce back is eating healthy. I find that giving my body the nutrition it needs, I get the boost I need. That’s when I start looking for healthy things to put in my system that heal.

What is Tabouleh Salad?

My favorite healthy thing to eat in the whole wide world is a Mediterranean salad I grew up eating called Tabouleh.

Tabouleh is a highly nutritious vegetarian dish. It’s convenient since you can make a big batch of it, stick it in the fridge, and eat it for days. No worries about it wilting in the fridge since there is no lettuce. Made with fresh, healthy ingredients, you are bound to feel energized and back to your healthy self again in no time.

The star ingredient in this recipe is Parsley. It is one of the world’s most popular herbs and available all year long at your local grocery store.

Parsley is highly nutritious and an excellent source of nutrients like vitamin K, C, A and folate. It is a rich source of antioxidants which helps prevent damage to your cells. It also has been found to have a unique quality that helps neutralize particular types of carcinogens. Surprisingly, most people only use it as a garnish to a dish or by adding it as a dash of seasoning to their recipes.

Why use parsley as a garnish and only receive minimal benefits when you could be eating this nutritious salad with this powerful herb as the primary ingredient? It’s like eating a superfood. Jumpstart your system into feeling wonderful again!

Want to start feeling healthy again? This may end up being your favorite healing recipe as well. Here’s to restoring good health!

Tabouleh Salad Recipe

On a side note, this recipe calls for cracked wheat or bulgur which means it is not gluten-free. For a gluten-free alternative, replace the cracked wheat with quinoa. Both are equally delicious.

Ingredients:

1 large bunch of parsley
2 medium tomatoes
1 cup of fine cracked wheat, bulgur or quinoa
1 bunch of green onions
1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 teaspoons high-quality sea salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Directions:

Place the cracked wheat in a bowl and cover with water. Let stand until cracked wheat is chewable, approximately ½ hour. If you use bulgur, which is much coarser that cracked wheat, you may have to increase the time to one hour. If you use quinoa, cook as directed and then let cool.

Chop parsley tops into very small pieces and put in a large bowl. To quickly chop off the ends of the herb, use kitchen shears.

Dice the tomatoes and chop the green onions, green parts only. Then add them to the bowl.

Drain the water from the cracked wheat or bulgur and squeeze all the water out. An easy way to do this is to remove the wheat by the handful and squeeze the water out right away. Then add the handfuls to the salad.

Mix well.

Add the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix again.

Season to taste and enjoy!