‘It turns out tabbouleh is a lovely way to fill your boots at lunchtime’

I lunch at my desk most days, forking stuff into my mouth from a variety of my daughter’s discarded lunchboxes while I scan online headlines and catch up on Important World Events and/or Kate Middleton’s Latest Maternity Outfit. One lunch box features a faded Peppa Pig, another is decorated with washed-out looking pirates. But it’s what’s on the inside that counts, apparently.

Lately, what’s in my lunchbox is tabbouleh, a Lebanese dish involving bulgur wheat which I would, until very recently, have turned my nose up at being too healthy-sounding for my liking.

But it turns out tabbouleh, (I pronounce it tab-ooh-lay but others favour tabb-oo-leh) is just a lovely way to fill your boots at lunchtime. Especially when somebody else has made it. Last Christmas I got my boyfriend a voucher for a vegetarian cookery course at Cook’s Academy in Dublin. Best present I ever gave because he’s been making a big vat of tabbouleh every week since.

However you pronounce it here’s the easy-peasy, delicious – and this is only a bonus – healthy recipe for tasty tabbouleh. (Squirt some sweet chilli sauce on it if you want to be bold.)

Fresh tabbouleh

Ingredients
225g bulgur wheat
4 spring onions, finely chopped
3 tbsp chopped fresh mint
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
2 medium tomatoes, diced with the seeds scooped out
juice of 1 lemon
5 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Method
1. Place the bulgur wheat in a glass bowl and pour in just enough boiling water to cover. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave to soak for 20 minutes.
2. If the bulgur wheat is a little soggy, drain in a sieve
3. Fluff well with a fork and add the rest of the ingredients. Season to taste
4. Allow the ingredients to infuse for half an hour.
(Keeps really well in the fridge for a few days.)