Start Gathering Your Garden Fresh Recipes

In anticipation of the unfolding growing season, here is a fresh, colorful side dish packed with whole grains, veggies, and flavor. This recipe is perfect for any of you that plant a vegetable garden because the ingredients are easy to come by in the summer months. Even if you don’t grow your own vegetables, ingredients like cucumbers and tomatoes are at their peak growing season in June and July making them easy to find at your local farmer’s market or grocery store.

Tabouli Print Recipe

A traditional middle eastern dish, made with bulgur (cracked wheat berries), tomatoes, lemon juice, parsley, and spices. The bulk of your time preparing tabouli will be in the chopping, but it comes together easily. Let the flavors marry in the refrigerator for best taste.

Step 1. Prepare the bulgur. Mix together 1/2 cup bulgur with 3/4 cup hot water. Cover and let it sit for about an hour to let the bulgur soften.

Step 2. While the bulgur is soaking, start chopping the cilantro (about a cup) or parsley, tomato (1-2), and cucumber (1). I prefer the taste of cilantro, so chose it over parsley. Either works great. I peeled and seeded the cucumber before chopping it. If you’ve never seeded a cucumber, all you have to do is take a spoon and drag it through the seeds until you’ve removed them all.

Step 3. Combine all your ingredients: the bulgur, chopped cucumber, tomatoes, cilantro, the juice of one lemon, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 4 tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper, and cumin to taste.

Step 4. Let it rest and develop in flavor. It looks so tasty you want to eat it right away, but it is worth the wait! Imagine how much brighter it will be with garden fresh tomatoes!