This Traditional Tabbouleh Salad is fresh, tangy, light, and full of flavor. The ingredients are easy to get and are put together in minutes. A true Summer Recipe Winner!
Tabbouleh (or Tabbouli) is a year-round salad. We have falafel nights very often, and it always includes this fresh dish. But during summertime, we make it countless times, as it is the kind of light salad that we munch for brunch or as a takeaway for a beach day.
This tabbouleh recipe was inspired by the Feel Good Foodie Blog, and I made a couple of changes to adjust to our liking. It pairs well with these fantastic Crispy Falafels, Homemade Hummus, and Silky Eggplant Babaganoush available on this site, for an entire middle eastern inspired dinner or brunch.
Ingredients
Traditional Tabouleh Ingredients w/o cucumber Tabouleh Salad Ingredients plus Cucumber
Below the Tabbouleh ingredients to make it perfect
- Curly Parsley (Italian parsley also works)
- Fine Burghul Wheat (coarse also work, as well as Couscous, but is not traditional)
- Lemon
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil (good quality makes a difference)
- Firm plum tomatoes
- Green Onion (green part)
- Fresh mint
- Cucumber (optional, but not traditional)
See the recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Mix the olive oil, lemon juice, and burghul wheat and let it soak, while you continue with the rest. This way you will save some time and let the wheat absorb all the flavors.
Chop the tomato (and cucumber) if you decide to add some. Cucumber is not part of the traditional recipe, but sometimes I like to add it. It gives an extra fresh note and volume. Make sure, you only keep the tough parts and remove the seeds from both tomatoes and cucumbers.
You can save the removed parts of tomatoes for a marinara sauce and cucumber's for juices.
Chop green onion tops and soak in water Peel Cucumber Deseed cucumber Clean the cucumber Diced Cucumber Core and deseed Tomatoes Mix tomato and cucumber with pinch of salt Drain all excess water from veggies
It would be best if you chopped the parsley and mint together finely. You can use a food processor to accelerate the process, but keep in mind that it will make the green mix a little watery, and you will need to pass it through a colander to get rid of the excess moisture. Otherwise, your salad can turn out soggy.
Chopped fresh parsley Fresh parsley chopped in food-processor
Combine all the ingredients into a large bowl, mix thoroughly, and season with salt and pepper.
Hint: mixing the tomato [and cucumber] with a pinch of salt will help to extract the extra water from the vegetables. Use a colander to drain the excess water.
Substitutions
If you follow a Whole Food Plant-Based, Oil-Free, or Salt-free diet, feel free to omit oil and salt. This salad is packed with flavor and will taste just as good.
Sliced cucumber Couscous
- Parsley: traditional Lebanese tabouleh is made with curly parsley but Italian parsley works well too.
- Cucumber: to make it entirely traditional Lebanese, omit the cucumber.
- Burghul: if you only find coarse burghul, you can use it, but you will need to add ¼ cup of boiling water to the olive oil and lemon juice mix so it softens enough. Allow extra 10 mins to soak. Test for hardness before mixing with the green and veggies.
- Couscous: if you can't find burghul wheat, you can use couscous, although it wouldn't be traditional. Just add two parts of boiling water for every part of the couscous and soak it for 15 minutes, along with th eolive oil, and lemon juice.
- Mint: some people omit the mint, which is completely fine, but I think it is a true differentiator. In my opnion, that would take away a lot of this salad's freshness.
- Lemons: in some countries is hard to find lemons, and limes are more common, go for it! The taste will change, but the acidity we are looking for, will be there.
- Tomatoes: the parsley/tomato ratio should be noticeable, don't overdo the tomatoes and/or cucumber since the flavor profile may vary substantially. The parsley is the king here!
Variations
If you like, you could add more burghul, but the traditional Tabbouleh Salad only has a tiny amount. Sometimes, when I feel like having a little bit more carbs in my salad, I go crazy and double or triple the amount of burghul or couscous, which will also increase the volume. This comes in handy if you are catering to many people.
- Spicy - add chili pepper flakes.
- Flavor Strength - if you like more robust onion flavors, you could also use the white parts of the green onion and/or add a minced garlic clove. On the contrary, as suggested above, you could place the chopped green tops and soak them in water before adding them to the mix. This will make the flavor less intense.
- Texture - at times, I like using coarse burghul wheat, so when I have extra 10 mins, I use that one, which is also easier to find. The texture of coarse burghul, sort of "bites you back". And I love textures!
- Kids friendly - add extra burghul wheat (or couscous); that way, the parsley flavor is less prominent.
Equipment
Simple equipment here, you need a cutting board, a colander, a good knife. Add a peeler, if using the cucumber.
If you want to save some time, or just dislike too much chopping, you can use a food processor to finely chop the parsley together with the mint leaves.
Storage
This tabbouleh salad stands well in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Actually, we love next-day Tabbouleh, as the flavors are more consolidated.
These ingredients don't stand up well to freezing.
Top tips
Make sure to remove any excess moisture from both the tomatoes, cucumber, and chopped greens. The salad should not be soggy.
You could make the Tabbouleh Salad the day before, or a couple of hours prior to serving, so the flavors have completely settled.
Don't throw the parsley stems, they are great for juices, salads and pestos.
If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #ourplantbasedworld on Instagram. Cheers!
Recipe: Tabbouleh Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil omit if adhering to a WFPB diet
- ⅓ cup fine bulghur wheat sometimes called #1, or couscous
- 2 lemons juiced
- 2 bunches parsley about 2 cups chopped
- 2 plum tomatoes ripe, firm
- 1 green onion green part
- 1 cup fresh mint about 15 leaves
- Salt and pepper to taste
Optional:
- ½ cucumber deseeded and coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Mix the olive oil and lemon in a bowl and add the burghul wheat. Let it soak for 15 minutes.
- Finely slice the tops of the green onions and save the whites for another recipe. Soak in 1 cup of water while you continue to make the flavor less pungent.
- Slice the tomatoes in quarters and deseed. Remove the watery content. Finely dice the firm part.
- If using cucumber, roughly peel it, leaving some of the green peals on. Slice it lengthwise and with the tip of a spoon, remove all the seeds. Coarsely chop the two halves in small dice.
- Mix the tomato [and cucumber] and add a pinch of salt. The salt will help to remove the excess water.
- Remove the parsley and mint stems and finely chop the leaves together. Or place in a food processor.
- Using a colander, strain the chopped diced tomatoes [and cucumber] from the excess water, as well as the green onions slices.
- Mix everything in a bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste. You may want to add a little more lemon.
Video
Notes
- Parsley: traditional Lebanese tabouleh is made with curly parsley, but Italian parsley works well too.
- Cucumber: to make it entirely traditional Lebanese, omit the cucumber.
- Burghul: if you only find coarse burghul, you can use it, but you will need to add ¼ cup of boiling water to the olive oil and lemon juice mix, so it softens enough. Allow extra 10 mins to soak. Test for hardness before mixing with the green and veggies.
- Couscous: if you can't find burghul wheat, you can use couscous, although it wouldn't be traditional. Just add two parts of boiling water for every part of the couscous and soak it for 15 minutes, along with the olive oil and lemon juice.
- Mint: some people omit the mint, which is completely fine, but I think it is a true differentiator. In my opinion, that would take away a lot of this salad's freshness.
- Lemons: in some countries is hard to find lemons, and limes are more common. Go for it! The taste will change, but the acidity we are looking for will be there.
- Tomatoes: the parsley/tomato ratio should be noticeable, don't overdo the tomatoes and/or cucumber since the flavor profile may vary substantially. The parsley is the king here!
Nutrition
Food safety
We sometimes take for granted that we have years (or decades) of cooking experience that the average visitor may not. Add to, or remove from, the list below with health and safety tips.
- Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
- Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
- Wash hands after touching raw meat
- Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
- Never leave cooking food unattended
- Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
- Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
See more guidelines at USDA.gov.
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full Nutritional Disclosure here.
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