1/4 cup fine bulgur
4-5 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup boiling-hot water
2 cups finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh mint
2 medium tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 seeded cucumber, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
Juice from 1 lemon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Stir together bulgur and 1 tablespoon oil in a heatproof bowl. Pour boiling water over, then cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand 15 minutes. Drain, pressing on bulgur to remove any excess liquid.
Transfer bulgur to a bowl and toss with remaining ingredients, including oil, until combined well.
Note:
Tabbouleh can be prepared 1-2 hours ahead, but add salt, pepper and oil just before serving.
Traditionally Tabbouleh does not have cucumbers, but we like the freshness it gives to the dish. I also add chick peas sometimes. You can also adjust the lemon and oilve oil to your tase.
In a pinch I will buy Near East Taboule Wheat Salad Mix and doctor ir up with fresh lemon juice, parsley, mint, cucumbers and tomatoes.
Veggie Sushi
2-3 cucumbers- sliced long and thin on a mandolin
1 avocado sliced
1 carrot, cut in sticks
alphalfa sprouts
Peanut Sauce
Measurements will be posted soon.
It was quite a bit of prep work cutting all the veggies, but all in all it took about as much time as making a regular cooked meal. The best part was I didn''t heat the house with the oven and I didn't have to watch a pot. I think it would be faster the second time when I knew what I was doing. In fact I am going to make these tonight since they were such a hit with my family.
I used cucumbers and zucchini as my wrap and filled with red peppers, alfalfa sprouts, carrots and avocado. Cucumbers were easier to work with and tasted MUCH better.
Dr. Andrew Weil, renowned medical expert on natural health and wellness, tells us why and how he uses the Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides.
Finding Healthier Food
You can lower your pesticide consumption by nearly four-fifths by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and instead eating the least contaminated produce, according to EWG calculations. When you eat the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables, you’ll be exposed to an average of 10 pesticides a day. When you choose fresh produce from the 15 least contaminated fruits and vegetables, you’ll consume fewer than 2 pesticides per day.
The Dirty Dozen™ Of the 12 most contaminated foods, 7 are fruits: peaches, strawberries, apples, domestic blueberries, nectarines, cherries and imported grapes. Notable findings:
•More than 96 percent of peaches tested positive for pesticides, followed by nectarines (95.1 percent) and apples (93.6 percent).
•Nearly 86 percent of peaches contained 2 or more pesticide residues ‚ followed by apples (82.3 percent) and nectarines (80.6 percent).
•Strawberries and domestic blueberries each had 13 pesticides detected on a single sample. Peaches and apples were second, with 9 pesticides on one sample.
•Peaches had been treated with more pesticides than any other produce, registering combinations of up to 67 different chemicals. Strawberries were next, with 53 pesticides and apples with 47.
Celery, sweet bell peppers, spinach, kale, collard greens and potatoes are the vegetables most likely to retain pesticide contamination:
•Some 95 percent all celery samples tested positive for pesticides, followed by imported cucumbers (84.5 percent) and potatoes (84.2 percent).
•Nearly 85 percent of celery samples contained multiple pesticides, followed by sweet bell peppers (61.5 percent) and collard greens (53.2 percent).
•A single celery was contaminated with 13 different chemicals, followed by kale (10), and collard greens, domestic green beans, spinach and lettuce (9).
•Celery had been treated with as many as 67 pesticides, followed by sweet bell peppers (63) and kale (57).
The Clean Fifteen™
The vegetables least likely to test positive for pesticides are onions, sweet corn, sweet peas, asparagus, cabbage, eggplant and sweet potatoes.
•Asparagus, sweet corn, and onions had no detectable pesticide residues on 90 percent or more of samples.
•More than four-fifths of cabbage samples (82.1 percent) had no detectible pesticides, followed by sweet peas (77.1 percent) and eggplant (75.4 percent).
•Multiple pesticide residues are extremely rare on vegetables low in overall contamination. No samples of onions and corn showed more than one pesticide. Sweet potatoes showed multiple pesticides in 9.3 percent of samples.
•The most contaminated single sample among the low-pesticide vegetables showed 4 different chemicals.
The fruits least likely to test positive for pesticide residues are avocados, pineapples, mangoes, kiwi, domestic cantaloupe, watermelon, grapefruit and honeydew.
•Fewer than 10 percent of pineapple, mango, and avocado samples showed detectable, and fewer than one percent of samples had more than one pesticide residue.
•Nearly 60 percent of honeydew melons had detectable pesticides but only 14.2 percent of samples contained more than one residue. Grapefruit had residues on 54.5 percent of samples, and 17.5 percent showed multiple pesticide residues.
