This salad is a great way to change things up in the salad department. Although most people use parsley as a culinary garnish, it has some great health benefits, and tabouli salad is a great way to put it in the spotlight.
Nutritional Profile:
Parsley is a great source of vitamin K and vitamin C as well as a good source of vitamin A, folate, and iron.
Parsley also contains two unusual components; volatile oils and flavonoids.
Its volatile oil components include myristicin, limonene, eugenol, and alpha-thujene. These can help to neutralize certain types of carcinogens, myristicin in particular have shown to reduce tumor formation in animal studies.
The flavonoids in parsley, which include apiin, apigenin, crisoeriol, and luteolin, have been shown to work as antioxidants that combine with highly reactive oxygen-containing molecules and aid in preventing oxygen-based damage to cells.
Traditional middle eastern tabouli is made with cracked wheat, but it is just as delicious without. Alternatively if you want to make this salad into a complete meal, you can add cooked quinoa in place of the cracked wheat.
Recipe:
2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup minced fresh mint leaves (optional)
1/2 cup finely chopped red or yellow onion*
3 tomatoes, diced
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoons sea salt
Directions:
In a large bowl, add the chopped parsley, optional mint, onions and tomatoes, toss well. Wisk the oil, lemon juice, and salt in a separate bowl. Add to salad and mix well. Chill. Serve and enjoy.
Allowing the salad to sit for a bit also softens the parsley and makes it more digestible.
*If you don’t like the pungent taste of onion, chop it and then let it soak in water and 1 tsp of sea salt for about 10 min. You’ll get the crunch without the bad breath.
Source: Worlds Healthiest Foods : http://www.whfoods.com/