craving tabbouli

I've had a craving for tabbouli lately and last evening I finally got together the ingredients to make a batch. It being November, I made what I refer to as "winter tabbouli" which has cucumbers instead of tomatoes (the lack of tomatoes also means it will keep longer). Store bought tabbouli is often a bulger based salad with some stuff in it and it invariably lacks the freshness of homemade. Clifford Wright reminds us in Little Foods of the Mediterranean that tabbouli ought to be an herb salad with some bulger in it. Wright claims that the proper ratio is 7 parts parsley (6 or 7 large bunches plus a bunch of mint) to 1 part bulger. I used the leaves from two bunches plus a bunch of mint and next time I'll probably increase that to 3 bunches. Diced cucumbers, lightly salted, give it volume and some crunch and some thinly sliced scallions in addition to or instead of minced onion give it a little bite. Dress with some lemon juice and a generous drizzle of good olive oil and allow the bulger a little time to absorb the dressing - yum. Though it might well be traditional to scoop up tabbouli with romaine lettuce leaves, I like to use pita chips or even flour tortillas.