Tabbouleh?! The fresh salad we all love!
In 3 steps and only 15 minutes you are ready to enjoy this middle eastern salad!
Tabbouleh aka Tabouleh (تبولة) is a Levantine vegetarian salad, a great vegan and vegatranian dish, made mostly of finely chopped parsley, with tomatoes, mint, onion, bulgur, and seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Some variations add garlic or lettuce, or use couscous instead of bulgur.
While it’s a simple salad to prepare with few ingredients, here are a few key points to make your tabbouleh stand out on your next picnic!
- Step 1: As with all simple dishes, it’s crucial to use the very best ingredients. This means good quality olive oil and fresh parsley. But the two most important things are to use ripe tomatoes and tender cucumbers. Cucumbers are optional. I like using cucumbers as it gives the crunch!
- Step 2: The second thing is to soak the bulgur in the dressing. Many recipes tell you to cook the bulgur. Bulgur wheat is par boiled before it’s dried and so putting it in boiling water will make it too soft. Traditional Tabouleh recipes usually call to soak the bulgur in cold water for 15 minutes.
- Step 3: Lastly, don’t be afraid of the parsley. According to Wikipedia “The Levantine Arabic tabbūle is derived from the Arabic word tabil, meaning seasoning.” since bulgur isn’t much of a seasoning one can only imagine that the name is referring to the potent herbs that go into the salad. It’s also loaded with anti-oxidants and is even purported to slow the growth of tumors.
Yield: 4 side
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup cracked bulgur
- 1/2 red onion (finely diced) - optional
- 140 grams flat-leaf parsley
- 140 grams Lebanese cucumbers (~2 cucumbers, cubed) - optional
- 225 grams tomatoes (~2 tomatoes, cubed)
This article was previously published on UAE Moments.To see the original article, click here