Eat, Punch, Browse

I'm always looking for great, unusual recipes. With the impending October Nor'easter on our doorstep last Saturday, I had to run out to the herb garden and salvage all my flat leaf Italian parsley before it got buried under heavy snow. Figuring I'd make a batch of traditional tabbouleh, I went to Google for the classic recipe. I read through a few to find something a little different and found this - Cranberry Walnut Tabbouleh from the myrecipes.com web site, and originally from Cooking Light back in 2004. It's awesome! I love the combination of the bulgur wheat and reconstituted dried cranberries, walnuts, red onion and lemon. Lunch today was a whole wheat pita pocket filled with this wonderful concoction, and I've got plenty of parsley left to make a few more batches. Here's the easy recipe:

Cranberry Walnut Tabbouleh

1 cup bulgur wheat
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat leaf Italian parsley
1/4 cup minced red onion
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1 1/2 tablespoons walnut oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:
Combine bulgur and cranberries in a medium bowl. Add 1 cup boiling water, and let stand 30 minutes or until water is absorbed. Fluff bulgur mixture with a fork. Stir in chopped parsley and the remaining ingredients, and toss gently to combine.

Changes I made were to omit the mint as I didn't have any on hand or left in the garden, and I used my regular, good quality EVOO in place of walnut oil - if you watch Rachel Ray you'll know that means Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I'll definitely try it with walnut oil at some point though.

From Eat to Punch - I've got some new needlepunch designs from Buttermilk Basin. This one is called Punched Sheep, a great dimensional piece that mimics a hooked rug design, also available. Punched Pineapple matches a hooked version as well. Check out lots more new patterns on my What's New page. There's the Browse part!

Ciao!