If you have a sweet tooth for Middle Eastern dish, read on to learn how to make a Lebanese salad named Tabbouli!
The recipe is simple and straight-forward, and all you need is parsley as the main ingredient, fresh tomatoes, mint, spring onion, bulgur (or bourghul or cracked wheat), and your preferred seasonings like olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Tabbouli Salad
Tabbouli, Tabbouleh, Tabbuleh or Tabouleh, is a green appetizing salad which originated from Lebanon and Syria. Recently, it has become popular in the western world as well. This salad, which is served cold or in room temperature, mainly accompanies Mediterranean meals, like Greek Chicken, Hummus and Pita, Falafel, Baba Ganoush, Tahini Sauce and Dukkah. It is often mistaken for Couscous, because of the similarity between couscous grain and bulgur, but it is different.
By the way, you only need 20 to 30 minutes to prepare this vegetarian and vegan-friendly side dish, which is perfect for summers because of its refreshing minty quality.
Before you start, make sure you have these INGREDIENTS prepared. For four servings, you need:
• Bulgur: half a cup or 100 g
• Parsley: three bunches or about 220 g
• Mint: two tablespoons
• Onion: one
• Tomato: two average-sized ones
• Cucumber: one
• Olive oil: half a cup or 120 mL
• Lemon juice: half a cup or 120 mL
• Salt: half teaspoon
Then follow the INSTRUCTIONS below:
1. Prepare half a cup of bulgur first, so that you can put it aside to cool. Dip the bulgur in cold water and then drain the water. It’s better to just soak the bulgur tenderly, but cooking it will also do. Boil it in two cups of water, and wait until all the water is absorbed.
2. Dice the two tomatoes and one cucumber, and leave them in a bowl, and add half a teaspoon salt to the mixture. You may want to get rid of the juiced-out water later, to avoid making your Tabbouli salad too watery.
3. Chop the parsley, and put them in a separate bowl. You can do so by hand if you have enough time, but for a faster result, chop them by your food processor. You can de-stem the parsley beforehand, but it’s not obligatory. The stems give your salad a special flavor. Tip: if you can manage to find curly parsley rather than flat-leaf, your salad will have a great texture.
4. Chop two tablespoons of mint and an onion.
5. By now, your bulgur is cooled. Add it to the bowl of parsley, together with the chopped mint, onion, the diced and salted cucumber and tomato.
6. In a small bowl, blend half the olive oil and lemon juice. Add a little salt and pepper for a zingy and spicy flavor. Some cultures use garlic in making the salad as well. If you like the taste of garlic, mince one medium garlic and add to the mix.
7. Your Tabbouli is ready to be served immediately now! Use lettuce leaves, cucumber boats, fillo cups, or tostitos scoops to serve this salad.
8. You can put it in the refrigerator for later as well. And actually, some say it tastes even better a day after, because of the flavors that fully develop.
How healthy is this salad, NUTRITION-wise?
Tabbouli is a healthy side-dish because of its rich nutrition level, while zero in cholesterol. In each serving, it has:
• 240 calories
• 18.5 g fat
• 19 g carbohydrates
• 3.3 g protein
• 0 mg cholesterol
• 593 mg sodium
So, this salad is full of vitamins and minerals, and is good for immune system. Use the anti-inflammatory parsley as much as you like. It helps with lowering the risk of cancer. In the Turkish variation of this salad, more bulgur is used, which promotes wight loss.
Different cultures make different variations of this salad. Some people like to replace bulgur with semolina, and some others like to add lettuce to the mix. To make this salad grain-free, you only need to dismiss the bulgur, and add quinoa or even riced cauliflower instead. Some people also add pomegranate seeds instead of tomato.
If you tried this recipe, tell us what your favorite variation of this salad is.
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