Oh my goodness, what a wonderful find!!! I happened to peek through a cookbook at my brother’s and found this recipe. A hundred years ago, when I was still teaching and had lunch duty, there was a student that brought Tabouli for her lunch on a weekly basis. This was before I became a vegan, but even then it intrigued me. It’s something so different than a normal school lunch and obviously she enjoyed it…a lot!! I found this at our local grocery store but it was pretty pricey for our budget at the time so filed it away for future research. Looking at the recipe, it had all the things I really like but I remembered hers having Kalamata olives in it. This recipe, in its original state, does not. I assembled the original recipe and did the taste test and immediately added the olives. The trick now became, HOW MANY OLIVES TO ADD? (I have to be careful with this because I love Kalamata olives so adding too many would be easy to do) I am giving you the original recipe with a high recommendation of adding the olives. We used it as an appetizer on a wonderful new snack cracker called, “Off the Eaten Path/ veggie crisps”. It was such a hit, I had to make up another batch the very next day. Looking for a new appetizer to take to a party or just have ready to go in your frig? This recipe is a keeper! YUM!!
Prepare Quinoa (2 cups of water to one cup of Quinoa… bring water to boil, add quinoa. reduce heat to simmer for 12 minutes… put the lid on and let it sit till water is all absorbed. I add 1/4 tsp of salt to my water) Set this aside to cool while you assemble the rest of the ingredients.
1 med. cucumber (peel half the skin away in strips and dice)
2 green onions
1 med. tomato (diced)
juice and zest of one fresh lemon (this has to be a fresh lemon!!!!!!!!)
IN A SMALL FOOD PROCESSOR…CHOP COURSEY (My tiny one was perfect, my big processor ground it up too fine. You want to see definition in your olives and spices)
1/2 c. fresh parsley
2 Tbl. fresh mint
2 Tbl. cilantro
1/4 tsp. salt (the recipe called for 1/2 tsp. but I think the olives add enough salt that 1/4 tsp is plenty. Start small and add more if you need more salt)
pinch of red pepper flakes (I added 1/4 tsp cause I like it spicy!)
20 Kalamata olives (start with this many. It’s easy to add a few more but hard to take them out!!! ) (I think 20 is the perfect number but this is an area where personal preference needs to be monitored.)
COMBINE:
The quinoa, the diced cumber, tomato and green onions and the chopped spices and olives. Allow this to set for at least 15 minutes to blend the flavors. It will be BEST if the flavors can blend longer. ENJOY!!! * scoops work well with this too!!)
