Carrot and Cabbage Tabbouleh

Having a garden has really improved my inventiveness, creativeness and flexibility in the kitchen. When food is ready in the garden it has to be used or all of your hard work ends up in the compost! Today we had cabbage, spring onions and carrots that desperately needed eating...This lead to the following recipe - Carrot and Cabbage Tabbouleh. 

This is a really nice light, fresh salad that is a bit of a combination of tabbouleh and coleslaw. It is healthier than coleslaw as it doesn't have mayonnaise in it. You could leave out the cracked wheat/burghul, olive oil and lemon, and, add a mayonnaise to make an equally yummy, more traditional coleslaw. 

You can use either cracked wheat or burghul. It depends on what you have in the cupboard and what taste you prefer.

I have put quantities in the recipe but I usually just keep adding ingredients until I feel there is a good ratio of them all. The secret is to try and slice everything as finely as possible.

2 cups cracked wheat/burghul

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

3-4 spring onions, finely sliced

1 small/medium cabbage, finely sliced

3-4 carrots, finely sliced

5-6 inner stalks of celery, finely sliced

at least 2 large handfuls of flat leaf parsley, chopped

large handful of mint leaves, chopped

juice of 2 lemons

4 T olive oil

salt and pepper

Place cracked wheat in a mixing bowl. Cover with boiling water. Allow to soak for 30minutes. Once tender, drain as much liquid from the cracked wheat as possible.

Mix all vegetables and herbs with the cracked wheat.

Mix lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper together. Pour dressing over salad.

Then all there is to do is enjoy!