apricot couscous tabouli

I'm going to be honest here and tell you I just had a stroke of luck.  It was a healthy seasonal stroke of luck to be precise.  I was in the mood for tabouli (aka tabbouleh). Tabouli is a traditional Lebanese salad made of bulgur wheat tossed with parsley, mint, chopped tomatoes and lemon dressing. I have a particular fondness for it. Anyway, I wanted to develop a simple tabouli-inspired recipe. My idea was that tomatoes are no where near seasonally appropriate right now, so I wanted to try substituting dried apricots for them. I also wanted to swap whole-wheat couscous for the bulgur to make it even faster. Sounds yummy right?

So a bit of testing, and let me say it is indeed really delicious! I kinda had to keep myself from eating half the bowl when I was testing it, and save some for dinner.

There are all sorts of dried apricots out there. I happen to really like these organic Turkish apricots. They are unsulphured so they aren’t super pretty, but they are candy-sweet and have a complex floral quality that I love.  My sister on the other hand, will fight you to the death that dried California apricots are the only dried apricots worth eating.

But here is where the luck came in. I decided to do a little research about the nutrition side of it. Guess what? This recipe is crazy good for you. Like off the charts! One serving gives you 90% of your RDA of Vitamin A and 80% of your Vitamin C.

The parsley alone will give you 50% of your RDA of Vitamin A and 66% of your RDA of Vitamin C!  Not to mention, this tabouli recipe provides heart healthy essential fatty acids and a bunch of fiber. Oh yeah, and it is vegan if you’re into that. So there you have it (or should I say, as luck would have it) another healthy seasonal recipe.

Apricot Couscous Tabouli

Makes 4 servings, 1 generous cup each. Active time:30 minutes. Total time:30 minutes. To make ahead: Can be prepared up to 4 hours in advance.

Boiling water, (about 3 cups)

1 cup dry whole-wheat couscous

½ cup dried apricots, chopped (about 3 oz)

1 shallot, minced

½ teaspoon freshly grated orange zest, preferably using a rasp-style grater

¼ cup orange juice (from about 1 orange)

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons lemon juice (from about 1 lemon)

¾ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground pepper to taste

2 cups chopped parsley, preferably curly

½ cup chopped fresh mint leaves

1. Place couscous in a pie plate and pour 1 ¾ cup boiling water over it. Place the apricots in a heat-proof measuring cup and pour boiling water up to the 1 cup mark to cover completely. Let couscous stand until completely absorbed and cooled slightly, at least 5 minutes. Let apricots stand in hot water to soften while preparing the salad.
2. Meanwhile, whisk shallot, zest, orange juice,olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Stir in parsley and mint.
3. Drain the apricots and add them to the salad along with the couscous. Stir to combine. Serve room temperature or chill up to hours.