My wife and I are entering our third week of our Daniel fast, which began on August 4^th, and it has been a rough ride.  I admit that I went off the fast one day, using the excuse that my nephew was over helping me out, to cover for my taking him to breakfast for meat and eggs, and his treating for Chinese food.  I know, shame on me.  To make up for it, I didn’t eat the following day until late evening, but ended up cheating again.  I was making food for an ill relative:  cornbread and chicken casserole.  Anyone who cooks, or anyone who has ever watched Gordon Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen, knows that a good cook always tastes to ensure the flavors are correct.  Yeah.

So anyway, I am back in full swing.  I have made lentil soup, curried lentil soup, vegetable chili, found an awesome frozen gluten-free vegetable wonton, which I will make tonight to accompany today’s Bean Salad.  If you eat gluten-free, are on a Daniel Fast, or you just like a good vegetarian wonton, I highly recommend Feel Good Foods Vegetable Dumplings.  They are truly incredible.  Of course, you can make your own, using non-wheat flour, but ain’t nobody got time for that!  At least not right now.  I intend to do so in the future as I am withdrawing from gluten as much as possible.

Now to the Bean Salad that will accompany these dumplings tonight.  I am not a bean lover, but they are good for protein, and during a Daniel Fast, one must get their protein in wherever one can.  Being that my family has adopted an organic lifestyle, I try to make as much of my foods myself, which means I try to use as few pre-prepared foods as possible.  Because we are a chili loving family, I always have prepared organic beans in my freezer.  I have my three bean chili beans in my freezer.  I prepare kidney beans, pinto beans and black beans in my slow-cooker for eight (8) hours then freeze them in ziplock bags.  For this dish, I also soaked a cup of garbanzo beans, aka chickpeas, overnight, by covering them in cold water.  I then drained the excess water, covered the beans  with an inch of water and boiled them for half an hour, adding a teaspoon of salt.

Ingredients

1 cup of bulgur wheat

2 cups boiling water.

2 cups prepared three bean chili beans

1 cup prepared garbanzo beans

1 cup of corn

1 diced red onion

1 cup shredded carrots

1 cup of halved grape tomatoes (I used red and yellow tomatoes)

2 cups chopped cucumber, seeded

Dressing

½ cup of lemon juice

1 cup of olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, minced

3-4 sprigs of thyme

½ teaspoon of chopped oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Steps

1. Boil the water and add to the bulgur wheat.  Allow it to sit until most of the liquid is absorbed.
2. Combine the beans, diced onions and carrots in a large bowl.
3. Cut the cucumber in half, then seed it by running a spoon down the inner part of the cucumber.  Add to the beans.
4. Halve the cherry tomatoes and add to the bowl.
5. Add the bulgur wheat to the bowl and mix.
6. Prepare the dressing by combining the dressing ingredient, then pour over the salad.  Toss salad.  Adjust salt and pepper to taste.