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A few months ago I wrote a piece about parsley and what an important herb it is for brightening the flavor of foods. Several of you suggested that your favorite thing to make with parsley is tabbouleh, a middle eastern salad of sorts made with bulgur wheat and lots of chopped fresh parsley.
Here’s our version. It’s a cinch to make!
The thing that requires the most work actually is just the chopping up of the parsley. Don’t skimp on the olive oil. The salad needs it or it will be dry.
Feel free to add some chopped cucumber, or even chile for a little heat.
A good winter-time substitute for the fresh tomatoes is some canned roasted red peppers, or sun-dried tomatoes. Serve with hummus and some pita bread.
Tabbouleh Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups vegetable stock (for vegetarian option), chicken stock or water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups bulgur wheat
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- Zest and juice from 2 lemons
- 5-6 Roma or plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
- 2 scallions, chopped, including the greens
- 2-3 cups parsley, chopped
- 1 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
Method
1 Cook the bulgur: Place the bulgur in a medium sized bowl. Bring the stock or water and the teaspoon of salt to a boil, pour it over the bulgur. Let sit for 30 minutes to an hour.
2 Combine bulgur with remaining ingredients: In a large bowl, add the olive oil, lemon juice, bulgur and mix well. Add in all the other ingredients and mix to combine.
3 Let sit 30 minutes: Taste the tabbouleh, and add more salt, olive oil or more lemon juice to taste. Let marinate for at least 30 minutes before serving. Will keep chilled for several days.
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
Tabbouleh
I make it gluten free using quinoa instead of bulgur. Delicious!
Very easy and tasty.
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You might like to call the something else other than tabouli because it is nothing like Middle Eastern tabouli. I am of Lebanese descent, and the predominant feature of tabouli is parsley, not bulgur wheat. So use less bulgur wheat and more parsley and a good amount of tomatoes. Yes, you can include using mint but the appearance of our salad is green, not predominantly white. We do not cook our bulgur wheat, rather we soak it. And you need to use much more than two scallions. The dressing is olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper. And we do not use cucumbers. Your salad is probably very tasty, but it cannot be called tabouli.
Hi Marilyn,
Thank you for sharing your insights. Is it your experience that the bulgur wheat available in most American stores is the coarser kind you have to cook and not soak? I used to make tabouli frequently when I grew parsley in my garden, because it was a great way to use it up! I have noticed that in most Middle Eastern restaurants, the tabouli they serve is indeed much greener than what Americans tend to make at home.
Hello!
There are different grades of burghol. 1-4. 1 being extra fine which is the one you need for tabouli. You might have to find an international food market to get a different grade!
This salad as “tabbouleh” would work in France where they make what they call “taboulé” with couscous! There is too much bulgur! It is too coarse! Tabbouleh salad is mainly silky-soft parsley, fresh mint, tomatoes, green onions and dressing. No lemon rind, either. Anyway, I prefer to call your tabouleh “American tabbouleh”.
I am trying this recipe tomorrow with brown rice couscous, which is gluten free.