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This is a new spin on the traditional Lebanese dish. I use a lot less parsley and substitute couscous for bulgur wheat to whip this up in no time flat. It’s a great dish for the summer. You can eat it alone or serve it with grilled chicken or fish.

Ingredients

• 3 C cooked couscous
• 2 bunches fresh parsley
• 1 bunch fresh mint
• 1 bunch scallions
• 1/4 C chopped green olives
• 2 cucumbers
• 3 medium tomatoes
• 4 lemons
• 1/2 C evoo
• 1 T salt
• 1 T cinnamon

Directions

The couscous is pretty easy to cook. You just add hot water to the grains and let it sit covered for a few minutes. It immediately starts to absorb all the water. Put it in the fridge to cool it for the all the fresh veggies (you don’t want wilty mint).

The parsley is pretty much the hardest part of tabouleh because you have to chop SOOO much of it. The trick is to try to get as much of the leaves off without getting the branches. I find that if you skim off the outside leaves, you can get most of them without the twiggy parts. Then chop very fine. For the mint, pull the leaves off the stalks, pile them up and chop.

Chop the scallions, up to 2-3 inches up the green. Cut the cucumbers in half and scoop out the seeds. If you want, you can also peel them, but I kind of like the extra green. Then chop them up. Chop up the tomatoes. If you’re not going to eat all the tabouleh in the next day or so, you might want to consider cutting up tomato each time you want a serving. I feel that the tomato gets a little mushy after a few days and makes the salad a little watery. Cutting up fresh tomato makes it seem fresh each time you eat it.

After all this chopping, you’re going to end up with a beautiful, big pile of veggies.

To make the dressing, squeeze the juice from the four lemons. Mix in the salt and cinnamon. Add freshly ground pepper to taste. Then mix in the evoo. Mix in the veggies, the dressing, and the couscouse and serve.