Shrimp and Tabbouleh Salad

The unfinished product.....


I've been eating a little bit too richly. T and I have made a resolution to try to eat less meat (especially red meat) and eat more vegetables. It's starting to get easy to do that since all the summer produce is starting to come out, and buying a friggin' cucumber no longer makes a girl go broke.

So today for dinner, inspired by a dish my little sister Jackie's made for Mother's Day a few weeks ago, I made Shrimp Tabbouleh Salad, adapted from a Bobby Flay recipe. This recipe uses ingredients that are pretty commonplace household ingredients, and the tabbouleh and shrimp use an extremely similar marinade.

Perhaps it is a misnomer to call this tabbouleh; it's not a 'traditional' tabbouleh at all, which is usually predominated by parsley, mint, tomato, and onion. I still think that the lemon and tang of it satisfies the taste I look for in a tabbouleh.

(Serves 4 as an appetizer salad, 2-3 as a meal)

Ingredients:

:: 1 cup cracked bulgur
:: 2 cups boiling water
:: 1/3 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
:: 1 clove garlic
:: 1 1/2 arugula leaves
:: 3 scallions, chopped
:: 3 tbsp mint, chopped
:: 1/4 cup olive oil
:: s & p, to taste

if shrimp are desired..

:: 1 pound shrimp, deveined, peeled except for tails
:: 1/4 cup lemon juice
:: 1 clove garlic
:: 2 tbsp olive oil
:: s & p

Bulgur is a wheat product that is supposed to have more good things (fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals) and a lower glycemic index than other refined wheat products. It has a nice nutty flavor with more of a bite (like brown rice) than plain pasta.


Arugula, (not pictured above, oops), if you've never had it, is bright and peppery, and could probably be substituted with another green, but has a quite nice contrast with the lemon and more mild tasting mint and scallions.

Boil the water, pour the bulgur in. Turn off heat, cover with a lid and let the bulgur cook as you prepare the rest of the ingredients. (Isn't this easy already?)

I zest my lemons as I juice them, because I figure you should use all parts of the fruit. Skip that step if you'd like (I usually zest only 1 lemon out of however many I actually use). As a rule of thumb that whatever I add lemon juice to, lemon zest is a good addition to as well.

After you chop 1 clove of the garlic, pour the 1/3 cup of lemon juice over the garlic. Raw garlic can have too unpleasant of a bite - I'm sure you've experienced the extremely tenacious garlic-dragon-breath that can happen after eating a too raw clove. Or at least I hope that's not just me?

Letting the acid sit on top helps mellow out the taste without getting rid of it completely. Set aside and let the lemon and garlic macerate before adding in the olive oil.

In a separate bowl where you have placed the raw shrimp, add the remaining 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 1 clove of garlic. Add 2 tbsp olive oil and pour over the deveined and peeled shrimp. You can add 1 tsp of salt and liberally pepper at this stage. Set aside and let marinate at least 10 minutes.

At this point, the bulgur should be pretty much cooked. You can always follow the box directions, but I usually just taste it and make sure that the grains are cooked enough to be pleasantly chewy without being hard. Drain the bulgur.

Now seems like a good time to introduce my loyal, regal, non-opposable thumbed sous chef, Sophie. She doesn't actually cook much, to be honest, but she is a heck of a cheerleader and especially talented about being underfoot when I'm carrying heavy hot things and trying not to trip over her 10 pound body.

Add olive oil to the lemon, zest, garlic mixture. Mix the whole mess in with the bulgur. Toss in scallions and chopped mint. Salt and pepper to taste. Arugula can be added in immediately before serving, otherwise it will get too soggy.

I cut my scallions on a bias, meaning diagonally instead of perpendicularly to the stem. This makes no difference whatsoever except a change in aesthetics, and for making me feel fancier of a cook than I actually am. The mint could be rolled up like a cigar and finely julienned (cut perpendicularly to the 'cigar' to make very thin strips), but I opted for a nice rough chop instead.

The shrimp is best served grilled, but I didn't have the patience to light charcoal today, so I just did it over the stovetop over med-high heat for a little over a minute on each side. Don't overcook the shrimp! Taste testing is highly encouraged :)

After cooling, toss them in with the salad. This is a type of dish that gets better the longer you let it sit. 2 hours minimum would be ideal, and it tastes just fine the next day.

Before...

After!....
If you'll notice, there is no arugula in the above-pictured salad. That is because I got too hungry and hasty (yet again) and started to eat it before the salad was complete. In fact it's probably not even a salad because the only green things in it are 5% scallions and mint. When I eat it for lunch tomorrow, I will add in the arugula, but I'm assuming I'll also be too hungry then to take a proper picture of the finished product. I suppose you'll just have to imagine it with more green things in it :)

And just because these are beautiful...


On an unrelated note, happy graduation and congratulations to the new Doctors of the Class of 2011! And to the new Doctor Doctors, and Doctor Masters, and whatever other degrees you all have accumulated over the years. Best of luck in your professional and personal endeavors....and hooray for no 30-hour-call days!! (we think this is a good thing, anyway.)