Cardamom and Tea

ruby fennel tabbouleh

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Tabbouleh (also spelled tabouli, tabbouli, or tabboule) is a traditional salad, made with bulgur, lemon, olive oil, parsley, mint, green onions, and (usually) tomatoes. While I love traditional tabbouleh, and eat it all the time, when I’m up for a change, I like to look at this list of ingredients as a formula for building a variety of different kinds of tabbouleh. I’m currently obsessed with a version that is minced up with fennel fronds, studded with grapefruit and pomegranate, and scooped up with fennel petals. I call it ruby fennel tabbouleh.

So what is it that makes tabbouleh tabbouleh, and not just some other salad? First, tabbouleh has to have a grain, most traditionally bulgur. It should probably have tomatoes, or something tomato-ish (although this isn’t absolutely necessary, since some traditional tabboulehs don’t include tomato). It’s got to have parsley and one or two other complementary herbs. It should have some sort of minced onion and some sort of zesty dressing with olive oil. And finally, tabbouleh is always vegan and must be finely minced.

But of course, it’s always fun to break one or two rules, when it’s for a very good reason. The one place this recipe transgresses is the grapefruit supremes. When I first developed this recipe, I diced up the grapefruit and gently folded it in with the rest of the ingredients, but no matter how gently I folded, the grapefruit disintegrated entirely. But I’m glad I tasted it, even though it looked so sad, pale, and watery, because the flavor was outstanding; fennel and grapefruit are such a fantastic combination. So in order to fix the texture problem, the next time I tried to recreate it, I kept the grapefruit supremes whole and placed the slices along the bowl’s border. That way, everything made it to the plate in one piece, the dish looked beautiful, and the fennel-grapefruit-pomegranate combination was as strong as ever.

Other than the crazy-huge chunks of grapefruit (forgive me, tabbouleh purists!), I kept this recipe pretty traditional with the bulgur, lemon, tomato, and parsley. But instead of mint, I used fennel fronds to add even more fennel flavor. Pomegranate seeds make a great addition to the tomatoes, since they add a similar color, but with more zest and crunch.

This is a wonderful summer salad, since we usually think of citrus as having a very summery mood, but it would also make a fantastic late fall salad, since many of its ingredients are in season later on in the year. If you’re really into local produce, you could even leave out the tomatoes altogether, adding extra pomegranate seeds and grapefruit supremes to compensate. And speaking of pomegranate seeds, if you’re looking for an easy way to remove them from the bulb, try doing it under water.

more tabbouleh

Build your own tabbouleh
Tomatillo tabbouleh verde
Tabbouleh margherita
Pomegranate Cilantro Tabbouleh

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ruby fennel tabbouleh

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Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup burghul #1 *
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice, plus more to taste
  • 1 cup minced red tomato, with juices saved
  • 1 small bulb of fennel **
  • 1/4 cup minced fennel fronds ***
  • 1 packed cup minced parsley
  • 1/4 cup minced red onion
  • 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 small or 1/2 of 1 large grapefruit, supremed
  • Extra fennel fronds and pomegranate seeds for garnish

Instructions

  1. Combine the burghul #1 with 1/3 cup lemon juice and diced minced tomatoes with their juices. Let this sit for 30 minutes while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
  2. Slice the fennel bulb into scoops by carefully severing each layer from the root and then cutting it into a few large triangular pieces from root to tip.
  3. Add the fennel fronds, parsley, red onion, pomegranate seeds, extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper to the soaking burghul.
  4. Combine, taste, and adjust the seasoning to taste (additional oil, lemon juice, salt, and/or pepper).
  5. Place the tabbouleh in a serving dish and place the grapefruit supremes all the way around the border.
  6. Garnish with more fennel fronds and pomegranate seeds, and serve the tabbouleh bowl alongside a plate of fennel scoops, or set the bowl on a plate and arrange the fennel petals around the bowl (see photos).

Notes

* Burghul #1 is pre-cooked and very fine, so it doesn’t need the extra step of being cooked in boiling water. You can find burghul #1/fine bulgur at most Middle Eastern grocers. If you can’t find a source near you, you can substitute couscous, cracked wheat, or coarse bulgur. However, these will need to be cooked in boiling water, according to the package instructions (or until al dente), rinsed, and then soaked with the tomatoes and lemon juice for about ten minutes.

** The fennel scoops can be used to serve the tabbouleh as an hors d’oeuvre at a party (like chips and dip). If your’e serving it as an hors d’oeuvre, instead of as part of dinner, you should buy a large fennel bulb (people tend to use more scoops for hors d’oeuvres than they do for dinner).

*** To buy fennel fronds, simply find a fennel bulb with some fronds attached to the top. If you can’t find one with fronds, just buy a larger bulb and mix in 1/4 cup of finely minced fennel bulb, and garnish with a little reserved parsley.

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pickled mango | amba

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People who are used to eating a lot of Middle Eastern food are generally not afraid of sourness (case in point: this pickled mango / amba recipe!).

There should be some element in a Middle Eastern dinner that, if eaten on its own, would make your eyes squint shut, your nose fill with vinegar, and your mouth pucker to a point.

Not all of us eat these things on their own or have an obsession with sour foods, but eating entire lemons whole is not unheard of. We sometimes dust on so much sumac that you can’t see the food underneath. After doling out pomegranate molasses, we lick the spoon, and make the face. It’s almost unbearable—it brings tears to our eyes.

And if you’re always trying to find something that’s another level of sour, amba, or pickled mango, is a really good one.

amba ingredients

fenugreek / yellow curry powder

According to Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, amba (also known as torshi anbeh) is originally from India, but it has become a staple of Middle Eastern cuisine. The key to amba’s distinct flavor is fenugreek seeds, which taste a little like celery, but with a nice umami flavor and fragrance.

Many good yellow curry powders include fenugreek seeds, so if you can’t find them, substituting more yellow curry powder in its place will approximate the flavor. I’ve included instructions in the recipe for anyone who needs to make this substitution.

other varieties of amba

Middle Eastern amba doesn’t always include mango, but fenugreek seems to be the uniting factor in just about all recipes. For instance, cabbage amba is another popular amba pickle. Sham of Vegan Iraqi Food has a wonderful recipe for cabbage amba, with plenty of fenugreek flavor. But in any event, amba is incredibly tart and delicious.

green mangoes

a little extra tang

One of the things that makes pickled mango amba so tangy is the fact that you’re starting out with an ingredient that’s already sour before it even hits the vinegar brine. Instead of standing in the produce aisle gently pressing on every mango to try to find the one that yields to slight pressure, you’ll weed through a million ripe, perfect mangoes to find the tough green ones that everyone else rejects.

Green mangoes are crunchy, tart, and ideal for pickling, since they will soften slightly instead of entirely melting into the vinegar.

prepping green mangoes

While ripe mangoes are a cinch to slice into pieces, unripe mangoes are just a little different, since you have to use a lot more pressure to slice through it, and the peel won’t release from the meat very easily. Feel free to use the gifs below as a guide.

Prepping the mangoes is the most time-consuming part of this recipe, but it only takes about ten minutes. Everything else is as simple as boiling the water, vinegar, and seasoning, pouring it over the mango slices, and letting it sit in the fridge for at least a day or two. Like any pickle, amba will keep for a long time. Discard it after a while if it seems off (but, as they say, it probably won’t last that long).

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pickled mango | amba

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  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: at least 3 hours 15 minutes
  • Yield: 2 pints

Ingredients

  • 3 green, unripened mangoes *
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 3/4 cups water
  • 3/4 cups apple cider vinegar
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons curry powder
  • 3/4 teaspoons ground turmeric
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons ground fenugreek seeds **
  • 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 3/4 teaspoons fine sea salt

Instructions

  1. Pit and peel the mangoes and then slice them into thin strips. Coat them in lemon juice. ***
  2. Pack the mangoes into two pint-sized canning jars.
  3. In a small saucepan, combine water, cider vinegar, curry powder, turmeric, fenugreek, red pepper flakes, and sea salt. Bring to a boil and then immediately remove from heat. Pour over the mangoes.
  4. This recipe is designed for 2 pints, but if you need to, feel free to top them off with a tablespoon or two of lemon juice. If the tops are poking out, give them a shake every day for the first few days.
  5. Store the amba in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours before serving. It is pretty good as a quickle after 3 hours, but it’s even better after a few days.

Notes

Serving suggestions: This is a very flavorful pickle and should be served with food that doesn’t have a lot of flavor and piquancy of its own; use this anywhere you want to add acidity and brightness, like you would with a chutney, relish, or salsa. Serve alongside grilled meats and veggies, burgers, hot dogs, riza sh’ariyeh, and/or a simple salad with a very light dressing. Leave the amount of amba up to your guests instead of plating it for them. Everyone has a different preference for tartness, and while some guests will polish off a whole pint, others will only have one or two pieces (but rest assured, just about everyone will love it).

* The mangoes should be very firm and should not yield to pressure. It’s ok if they are a little red, but they should be mostly green (judge by squeezing more than color).

** You can easily find ground fenugreek seeds online or in almost any Indian market. Although they’re from the same plant, they taste very different from fenugreek leaves (just like cilantro doesn’t taste like coriander seeds). You can sometimes find fenugreek seeds in Middle Eastern markets and health foods stores, but I find that Indian markets are the only really reliable source. If you can’t find ground fenugreek seeds, feel free to leave it out and use a total of 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon curry powder for the recipe.

*** See above gifs for instructions on pitting and peeling unripe mangoes. It’s a little different than pitting and peeling a ripe mango, since you can’t easily separate the flesh from the peel and you have to use a bit more pressure to slice through, and must therefore stabilize it.

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