The ingredients are pretty standard, but there is some technique, which I focus on here. Best if the main ingredients (parsley, cucumber, and tomato) are fresh.
Take one cup of (dry) Bulgar wheat, and add one cup of boiling water. Measure the water out while cold and don’t let any boil off, so it will be a bit more than a cup while boiling. Let that sit for a while.
Two or three bunches of parsley (any kind, fresh, curly is better) with most of the stems removed, cut into small bits. (You can use some cilantro in here if you want.)
One bunch of fresh mint, leaves only (no stems) chopped up very small.
Three bunches of scallions, or one or two bunches and some shallots, or a small to medium very sweet onion. Some combination of these, experiment, figure out what you like. You’ll eventually settle on scallions. Chip this onion-ish material into small bits. Meanwhile, heat a dry skillet/fry pan (no oil) not quite hot enough to fizz a drop of water, turn off the heat. Take the pan off the heat and throw the chopped up onion substance on that fry pan and stir it around. DO NOT COOK IT. This is just to force out some of the syn-propanethial-S-oxide.
Dice up about the same volume of tomato that you’ve already go with the parsley and onion, plus a bit more. It is a matter of taste. This is about six Roma tomatoes, or any other combination. Nice alternative: Cut a big pile of cherry tomatoes in half.
Two small or one larger cucumbers. Mostly peeled, remove most of the seeds (just cut in half long wise and scrape across the seedy area with a spoon). Does not need to be perfect. Diced.
Squeeze three or four limes and one lemon, run the liquid through a screen to get out any bits of seeds. You can skip the lemon, that’s just a think I do.
I go heavier on the spices than other recipes:
1/2 tsp – 1/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
3 tablespoons virgin olive oil (yes, olive oil is a spice in this dish.)
2-3 tsp cumin.
Throw it all together and mix it up.
Best if it sits for a while, but only a little while. Doesn’t really keep that long, so eat that day and the next day. (It will still be edible but cucumber doesn’t last).
Serve with Naan or Pita.
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