winter tabbouleh

Serves 6

This is a winter version of tabbouleh that incorporates tiny crunchy florets of raw cauliflower to the other familiar ingredients for a lovely refreshing salad. Serve as you would a traditional tabbouleh, with baby cos lettuce leaves for scooping. The hazelnut oil is optional, but its toasty flavour does work brilliantly with the cauliflower.

60 g fine bulgur wheat

80g tiny cauliflower florets

1 green tomato, deseeded and cut into 1 cm dice

1 vine-ripened tomato, deseeded and cut into 1 cm dice

1 Lebanese (short) cucumber, peeled, halved lengthways, deseeded and cut into 3 mm dice

2 spring onions (scallions), finely sliced

1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, shredded

1/4 cup mint leaves, shredded

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

juice of 1 lime

80 ml extra-virgin olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

a drizzle of hazelnut oil, to serve (optional)

baby cos lettuce leaves, to serve

Soak the bulgur wheat in cold water for 15 minutes. Tip into a tea

towel and twist to extract as much moisture as you can, then scrape

into a large mixing bowl.

Add the remaining vegetables, herbs and spices and pour in the lime

juice and oil. Use your hands to mix everything together thoroughly

then taste and season with salt and black pepper. Drizzle with

hazelnut oil, if using, and serve with baby cos lettuce leaves.