31 dishes, 31 days – I’m cooking my way through Melissa Clark‘s “No-Sweat Cooking” from the August issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray

Mike returned from Tales of the Cocktail yesterday, laden with swag and full of great stories. He was also feeling a little… shall we say fatigued from indulging in so much good food and drink during his week in New Orleans, and he asked that I plan out some light and healthful fare for the week.

Our Monday dinners are typically meatless, and this Herbed Tabbouleh Salad looked like just the sort of hearty but wholesome dish to help ease my guy back into post-pork-and-bourbon reality. I used my own homemade roasted red peppers, plus chickpeas that I had previously cooked from dried and portioned out (canned versions, are of course, just fine – I just have to do things my way). The salad itself was a breeze to put together, the bulgur needing just a quick soak in boiling water to soften, then a toss with the red pepper strips and chickpeas plus plenty of chopped parsley, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and some of our best olive oil. Mike liked it so much he ate the leftovers for lunch today, topped with a little leftover chicken I had cooked up while he was away. Another day, another winning low-fuss and sweat-free dish.

Get the recipe: Herbed Tabbouleh Salad

I like raw celery.

Specifically, now that I know what super-fresh celery that wasn’t trucked or flown over hundreds and thousands of miles to my local grocer tastes like, I like raw celery. It’s a revelation, really. I mean, I’ve always cooked with it – it’s one of the building blocks of so many dishes, after all – but the thought that I would actually see a recipe that features celery in its raw state and decide that I had to make that dish, immediately if not sooner, well, that’s something new.

It doesn’t hurt that the recipe also features pomegranate, one of the few fruits I truly love, and bulgur, an item I always have in my pantry but forget about unless I’m making tabboule, but the celery, those thin slices of crisp green goodness, the celery is what really made this dish sing for me.

I of course switched things up a bit from the original recipe, but the idea was the same, and the result was a beautiful mix of textures and flavors, earthy, bright, crunchy, sweet, tart – simply delicious and simple to make. The salad is substantial enough to stand alone, but I served it alongside lemony roast chicken breast. We loved the combination of flavors so much that we shredded some of the leftover chicken into the remaining salad for lunches this week.

Bulgur, Celery and Pomegranate Salad
Adapted from Heidi Swanson’s recipe on 101 Cookbooks

For the dressing:
1 garlic clove, mashed to a paste with coarse sea salt
1/4 cup freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
1/4 cup best quality olive oil

For the salad:
1 cup medium or coarse bulgur
1 small bunch celery, leaves trimmed, stalks sliced thinly on the bias
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1 cup picked flat-leaf parsley
1 cup picked fresh dill

For the dressing, whisk all the ingredients together until emulsified. Taste and add additional salt if desired, then set aside.

Put the bulgur in a large bowl and just cover with boiling water. Allow the bulgur to sit about 15 minutes – it will be soft but still have some bite to it. Add the celery, pomegranate seeds and walnuts, pour the dressing over and stir to blend. Add the parsley and dill and gently stir through. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.