Recipes: Leafy Dinner: Tabouleh and Sorrel Soup

[coraa]

Leafy dinner! Tabbouleh and sorrel soup. Both really challenged the idea that a leafy meal is tasteless 'rabbit food' -- parsley has a bitter, slightly peppery flavor that goes well with the earthy flavor of the bulgur and the lemony dressing, and the sorrel of the soup has a wonderful, sharp flavor. When I had jmpava try a raw leaf all by itself he went, "Wow. WOW! Lemon." So yeah.

Tabbouleh I've made many times, and this particular variation is a bit of a difference from how I usually make it. For one thing, without any fresh tomatoes, I used rehydrated dried tomatoes -- and really, really liked it that way. For another thing, I used cilantro and sorrel leaves in place of mint, and I really liked the cilantro, but missed the mint. Next time I think half-and-half cilantro and mint.

It was my first attempt at sorrel soup, and the first time I ever tried it, so I had no basis for comparison. Nice and creamy, though, with a wonderful lemony bite. It really reminded me of avogolemono (albeit without any rice or orzo).

Early Spring Tabbouleh

• 8-10 sun-dried tomatoes (not the type packed in oil)
  
• 1/2 cup medium-coarseness bulgur wheat
  
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp lemon juice (2-3 large or 3-4 small lemons), or more if you really like lemony flavor
  
• salt
  
• 1/4 cup olive oil
  
• red pepper flakes, to taste
  
• 2 tbsp tahini (not traditional, and totally optional, but very tasty)
  
• 2 green onions -- or in my case, 4 tbsp of finely chopped leek
  
• 2 cups chopped parsley (I used 1 cup parsley and 1 cup carrot greens, but if you a) don't have carrot greens, or b) are afraid they might be toxic, just use parsley)
  
• 4 tbsp chopped mint (actually, I had no mint, so I used 2 tbsp chopped cilantro and 2 tbsp chopped sorrel leaves)

In a small bowl, combine the bulgur wheat with 1/4 cup of the lemon juice and salt to taste (say, about 1/2 tsp). Let sit 20-40 minutes, until tender and fluffy. At the end, taste a few grains -- they should still be a little chewy, but not crunchy or hard. If they're still crunchy or hard after 40 minutes, add 1/4 cup water and let sit another 20 minutes.

Rehydrate the tomatoes by putting them in a small glass bowl and pouring a couple of cups of boiling water over the top. Let sit 10-20 minutes; I left them there while I made the sauce and chopped the greens. Then lift them out and pat dry. (If you're going to make a soup anytime soon -- I was going to make the sorrel soup right after -- reserve the soaking liquid to use as a broth.)

In another small bowl, whisk the remaining 2 tbsp lemon juice with the olive oil and tahini to make a creamy sauce. (If you don't have tahini, just leave it off; most of the recipes I found just call for lemon and olive oil.) Taste, adjust salt, and add red pepper flakes for a bit of spice, if you wish. When you taste it, you can also adjust the other flavors -- I wanted a little more lemony-ness, so I added the juice of another lemon.

Thoroughly wash and dry the green onions, parsley, and mint. (Or, if you're me, the leeks, parsley, carrot tops, cilantro, and sorrel.) A salad spinner makes short work of this task, but isn't necessary. If you have one, you can soak the leaves right in the salad spinner, lift out the spinner basket to pull the leaves out of the sandy water, pour out the water, and then put the basket back in to spin dry. If you don't have one, let the leaves sit in a big bowl of water for a few minutes, swishing once or twice, to get the grit out. (Greens can be pretty sandy.) Then lift out the leaves and pour the water and any grit that fell to the bottom into the sink, and pat dry with a clean dishcloth or paper towels. Then chop into bite-sized pieces -- not quite a mince, but not too big either.

Cut the rehydrated tomatoes into small pieces.

In a bowl big enough to hold them all, mix the bulgur mixture, the leaves, the tomato pieces, and the lemon-tahini-olive oil mixture until thoroughly combined. Taste, and adjust seasonings (salt, red pepper, lemon, oil) if desired. Cover the top with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let sit in the fridge to allow the flavors to meld, at least an hour and a half or up to 24 hours.


Creamy Sorrel Soup

• 1 leek, chopped and well washed (or, in my case, 1 leek, chopped, minus the 4 tbsp I used in the tabbouleh
  
• olive oil
  
• salt
  
• 1 smallish potato, peeled and diced (it doesn't have to be terribly small, just don't use one of those gigantic potatoes meant for baking and stuffing with cheesy broccoli)
  
• 2 cups vegetable broth (I used the soaking water from the tomatoes) or water
  
• 1 cup water
  
• 3/4 cup frozen peas
  
• 1 bunch sorrel, about 1/4 lb
  
• 1/3 cup sour cream
  
• juice of 1 lemon

Heat the olive oil in a soup pot and add the chopped leek, plus some salt -- maybe a teaspoon? Heat over medium-low heat until the leek is thoroughly tender and wilty, about 10 minutes. Add the peeled, chopped potato, the vegetable broth, and the water, and simmer 15 minutes.

At the end of 15 minutes, add the peas and cook for 5-7 minutes more, or until the peas are hot through and tender. Turn off the heat, add the sorrel, and puree. I use an immersion blender, but if you're careful about the handling hot liquid' thing you can also pour it into a standing blender in batches and do it that way.

In a small bowl, mix the sour cream with the lemon juice until smooth. Temper the sour cream by adding about 3 ladlefuls of the hot soup to it, gradually, one ladle at a time, stirring well after each addition. (This will keep the cream from either clumping or curdling in the hot liquid, which it will otherwise want to do.) Once all three ladlefuls have been added, pour the now-hot sour cream mixture into the soup. (For those watching their saturated fat, low-fat sour cream or yogurt might work okay, since it's off the heat and tempered, but do be aware that they're more inclined to curdle in acidic liquid than the full-fat variety so you'll need to take care.)

The soup is traditionally served chilled, but it was a cold day yesterday and I didn't want cold soup, so I had it hot, and it was very good that way, too.

Comments

[bellwethr.livejournal.com]

This sounds wonderful! *must remember to plant some sorrel!*

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

Oh man, that all sounds so good, and the lemon juice and red pepper flakes and tahini and green onions and mint all knock it entirely out of the park for me. //cries

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Well, the red pepper and tahini are extremely optional, and green onions and mint can be fudged with other, less-problematic herbs instead, but yeah, the lemon juice is particularly kind of hard to do without in tabbouleh. You can do a really good bulgur salad with water or chicken broth, fresh minced greens of any kind, sauteed mushrooms and a little optional garlic, and optional minced nuts and dried fruit, though, that's not acid-y at all.