Quinoa Tabooli

ingredients

This will be my lunch today.  Those home-grown tomatoes that are sitting on my counter have been taunting me, for some reason, with thoughts of tabooli.  But at my local, oft-lamented, less-than-gourmet HEB grocery store, there’s no point in even looking for bulgur wheat.  It dawned on me in a flash of inspiration, though, that I do have some quinoa in the cupboard.  There’s not a whole lot of difference in taste/texture between quinoa and bulgur, and in my not-necessarily-supported-by-facts supposition, it’s healthier too.  So I decided to make it with the quinoa.

Recipes abound for tabooli, as do spelling variants, but I decided to go with my tried-and-true recipe.  When it comes to recipes, I don’t throw much away.  I even have them somewhat organized, which for a cataloging librarian shouldn’t be that surprising, but is.  When I was still living in Austin, in the 70’s, I took a cooking class through UT’s Community Education, called Middle Eastern Cooking.  I had never eaten Middle Eastern cuisine, but I loved the class, in which we made things like Um Jadra, Hummus, homemade Pita Bread, and stuffed squash.  Tabooli, too.  And of course, I kept the recipe handout from the class.  It’s stained with olive oil and good spices.As it turns out, I decided to just use the ingredients and make up the amounts as I went along.  I also added diced cucumber.

 

So–it’s lunchtime!  Can’t wait.