Ok, so I strongly wanted to use the Vcon dill-tahini sauce recipe for something. For one thing, dill is my favorite underused fresh herb. It makes egg salad totally perfect; it's what makes the Shaker soup my favorite soup from the 12 Months of Monastery Soups cookbook: tomato, sour cream, and a ton of dill. I don't even like salmon, let alone gravlax, but I love dill.

So I wanted to try this sauce. In the further interest of getting rid of everything in the kitchen, I went into the freezer and stared at all the bags and jars of grain.

Tabbouleh with dill tahini sauce

salad:
bulgur wheat
water
cucumber
tomatoes

sauce:
1/2 c tahini
1/2 c water or less for thicker sauce
a clove of garlic, smashed and minced
juice of a lemon
2 tbs olive oil
1 tps vinegar (they say balsamic; I had white wine)
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
fresh dill and lots of it, chopped

Making bulgur wheat was pretty different than I expected. I used the Vcon method: steaming. All you do is rinse a cup of bulgur, put it in a pot, pour a cup and a half of boiling water over it, and clap on a lid. Then you wait. After ten minutes, the bulgur is cooked. I really didn't expect it to act so much like couscous: the actual food you can make with the hot tab of the water cooler at work. My batch of bulgur turned out a little watery, but I imagine if you are less lazy than me you can pour extra water off, or put the pan over low heat for a few minutes to let it evaporate.

While your bulgur is steaming, prep vegetables and make sauce. The vegetables are easy: chop tomatoes and cucumbers into bite-sized chunks. You can use any kind of tomato as long as it's fresh; I used cherry tomatoes, which I cut in halves. I also peeled my cucumber, since it was starting to get a little old and tough. In general, I would peel any gigantic waxed supermarket cucumbers, but leave others unpeeled. Use lots of vegetables for nice crunchy fresh salad.

Sauce: mix together all the sauce ingredients. I found this sauce to be a bit too watery for my tastes, especially with the wet bulgur, so I'd add less water next time, maybe 1/3 or even 1/4 cup. Use as much dill as you can stand to strip from a market bunch. Dill: it's awesome, and it's also the herb that makes this tabbouleh cohere, as opposed to the usual parsley. Put some effort in and use a lot. Pulse the business together with a food processor or stick blender if you are dissatisfied with its texture.

You can serve this a couple different ways. I prefer to mix all the ingredients up together, so the sauce can soak into the grain really well. You can also plate a serving of grain, strew vegetables over the top, and pour the sauce decoratively over everything. If you're feeling fancy, this is the way to go.

The leftover lunching was excellent.