Middle Eastern Madness: Tabbouleh

I had never really been a fan of tabbouleh. The only time I’d ever come close to it was in a late night lamb kebab after too many beers (all you Australian readers know what I’m talking about). However, that all changed when I went to LA recently to visit some friends. My good friend Em made me this deliciously fresh tabbouleh. I have made it every week since. This one’s for you, Em.

What’s actually in that stuff?

What's in it?

If you want to make a decent size batch for about six people, you’ll need the following:

• 2 cups of bulgur (cracked) wheat
• 3 to 4 shallots
• 1 bunch of mint (more or less to taste)
• 1 bunch of FLAT Italian parsley
• Small box of grape tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 1 clove of crushed garlic
• Juice of one lime or lemon (whatever you prefer)
• First pressed virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Did you catch me out? I forgot to include the tomatoes in the picture!

As Em says:

I sometimes also add a little ground cumin and a dash of cayenne pepper. Importantly, you can leave out any of the above ingredients, or use others … except you really need lemon juice and a good olive oil. As with ALL recipes, it’s the quality of the ingredients you do use, rather than any you may not have on hand. Really good (first pressed virgin) olive oil is really essential

Do I need to prep anything?

Not too much. Before you start anything, place the cracked wheat in a bowl and cover with boiling water to soften it up before adding everything else to it. By the time you’ve finished chopping everything, the water will have been absorbed. Be sure to drain out any excess water that hasn’t been absorbed.

Finely chop you parsley, mint, and shallots. Dice your cucumber and crush your garlic.

There are a few simple steps:

1. Finely chop the parsley, mint and shallots
2. Crush garlic
3. Dice cucumber
4. Cut grape tomatoes into quarters
5. Combine everything with the softened bulgur wheat
6. Add olive oil, lime juice and salt to taste
7. انتهى

No. 7 is ‘finished’ in Arabic 🙂

Doesn't that look tasty?

Serving Suggestions

Tabbouleh is a side dish. I’ll eat it with anything but it goes really well with some fresh avocado, hummus, falafel, and pita pockets.  Fresh and healthy. We make a pretty big batch & it’s just the two of us eating, so Shya is able to take it as lunch for a few days. Give it a shot!

Serving Suggestion

Brekkie at Boogaloos

If you are  following us on Twitter you may have seen that we treated our Australian mate, @kelvinyap, to a delicious breakfast at one of our favorite spots  in the Mission, Boogaloos.

Boogaloos - 22nd and Valenica, Mission, San Francisco

What can I expect to eat there?

In their own words, “whether you are in the mood for savory scramblers, sweet lemon-corn meal pancakes, or a spicy mexican style breakfast the heaping portions will leave your tummy full without breaking the bank”. It’s true, check out their full menu.

Sounds perfect for a Bundaberg OP hangover. What did we get?

Eggs Valencia

Served only on weekends, Eggs Valencia is comprised of 2 poached eggs, served on an English muffin, topped with hollandaise with your choice of homefries or fresh fruit. Homefries please!

Weekend Special: Eggs Valencia

Man, oh man. This is one seriously good way to start the day. The eggs were perfectly poached. No joke. We’ve got photo evidence.

What a perfectly poached egg looks like

Did someone mention a mimosa?

Yes, yes they did. When you order a weekend special, for a measly $4, you are treated to bottomless mimosas and coffee. For my fellow Aussie readers, you may want to read up on what a mimosa actually is.

You even get to choose from a few mimosa variations. We went for the Cyprus.

• Mimosa (champagne & orange juice)
• Cyprus (champagne & grapefruit)
• Poinsettia (champagne & cranberry)
• Kaliber (non-alcoholic)

Next time you are looking for a killer breakfast that won’t break the budget, be sure to give Boogaloos a shot. We’ve eaten there numerous times and everything has been delish.

I’ll leave you with a picture the missus took. I’m sure you’ll agree, it’s mouth-watering, and simply an amazing shot.

Vegetable soup, for men

Ok, it’s good for ladies too! In fact I need to thank my good friend Larissa for this recipe. An old flat-mate of mine, Larissa would do a lot of cooking for her boyfriend, Jaymes, and I. Jaymes had a medical condition which forced him to become a vegetarian for a while, so I was introduced to some pretty darn delicious food, sans meat. This vegetable soup is one of my favourites. It’s full of flavour and has enough goodness packed into it to be a complete meal, even for a dude. Oh, it’s also incredibly cheap and easy to make. Again, even for a dude.

What do I need?

Everything you need

The picture above is a little misleading. When I make this soup I usually do a double batch and freeze the left-overs. The ingredients list below is good for a single batch:

• 1 leek – white part only, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 litre vegetable stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup brown lentils
• 1/2 butternut pumpkin, chopped
• 400g can of chopped tomatoes
• 2 zucchini, chopped
• 1 small broccoli, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped

A couple of things to note:

1. Pumpkin is currently out of season here so I used a yam instead
2. You can also add half a cup of peas, but the missus doesn’t like those so I leave them out

Go on, tell me how easy it is

1. Chop all of your veggies up and crush your garlic

Leeks, yam and garlic

Zucchini, carrot, broccoli

2. Heat a few spoonfuls of olive oil, add leek and garlic – cook for 5 mins/till translucent

Cooking the leeks and garlic

3. Add all spices, stock, bay leaf, lentils and yam, season with salt and pepper, bring to the boil, then simmer till lentils are cooked (maybe 15 mins).

Add everything except the carrot, zucchini , broccoli and tomatoes, and bring to the boil

4. Add tomatoes, and other veggies (except peas) plus 2 cups of water and simmer till veggies are cooked.

5. Less than 5 steps and you’re done.

Boom. You're done.

A couple more notes:

1. If you did want to add peas, do so right at the end and wait until they are cooked (obviously) before getting ready to eat
2. This soup is freaking awesome with natural yogurt mixed with freshly chopped mint and cilantro. Seriously. Just do it.

Is that it?

Yep. I told you it was easy. This recipe will serve about four pretty hungry people. As I mentioned, I make it in double batches so I have plenty of left overs in the freezer and the gf was lucky enough to get some for lunch today. If you want to get extra fancy, serve it with some olive bread on the side.

Do you have a soup recipe? Please share it with me!

Guacamole, with a kick

Being an Aussie living in San Francisco I’ve been introduced to the deliciousness that is Mexican cuisine. I live in the Mission District, a neighborhood famous for good, cheap Mexican food. Papalote and Poncho Villa get frequent visits from me. After 7 months of eating, a lot of eating, I’d thought I’d give cooking a shot. So last night I decided to make fajitas, with a fresh batch of guacamole. Let’s focus on the green stuff first.

What do you need?

• 3 largish, ripe avocados
• 2 fresh red chilies
• Half an onion – red or white, it’s your choice
• 1 tomato
• A handful of cilantro, or as us Aussies call it, coriander
• Juice of half a lime
• Salt to taste

I like to have everything prepared before combining them together

Alright, what next?

1. Halve each avocado. Remove seed. Scoop out avocado from the peel, put in a mixing bowl – Don’t know how to do this? Learn how.
2. Mash the avocado using a fork until you have a smooth consistency with some lumps
3. Squeeze the juice from half the lime into the mixing bowl and combine
4. Add the onion, chilies, and tomato and mix into the avocado
5. Stir in the cilantro
6. Add salt to taste
7. Boom. You are done.

What can I eat it with?

Grab yourself some:

• Corn tortillas
• Black beans
• Pepperjack cheese
• Bell peppers
• Ground beef or soy-based imitation (which is what I use)

I like to cook the ground soy (“beef”) and add some fresh lemon and lime juice (to taste), salt and pepper and some freshly chopped parsley for seasoning. Once the beef has browned, I’ll add the bell peppers.

Everything ready to go

Spread some of that yummy guacamole onto the tortillas and fill it with beans, peppers and cheese. It’s seriously good and makes for delicious left-overs.

Final Product

Anyone up for a guac-off? Surely you can do better than an Aussie…