Tabbouleh is a fantastic salad made with bulgur wheat, cucumbers, tomatoes and and freshly chopped herbs. Parsley and mint brighten up the salad with a lemon dressing.Â
I have always loved tabbouleh. It is a wonderfully light salad that makes for great left overs. The fresh herbs and lemon juice make this dish special. I have have working to get the right balance of chopped herbs to the rest of the ingredients and found this to be the best ratio. Another bonus to this dish is it is great for meal prep and takes 30 minutes to prepare.Â
In this recipe
This is a dish that has a focus on parsley. In the food processor you will be adding 1-2 bunches of parsley for this recipe. It is also important to use flat leaf parsley instead of curly parsley. While both can be used for the recipe flat leaf parsley has a more robust flavor. Also you want to include the stems in the dish as well since the flavor is more concentrated there.Â
Soaking vs cooking
One of the cool things about bulgur wheat is that it doesn’t need to be cooked. You can soak it for a while and it is good to go. The length of time to soak is going to depend on the coarseness of the grain. Traditionally tabbouleh is made by soaking the bulgur wheat but that takes over an hour. For those with less time available by cooking it you drastically reduce that time.Â
Tomatoes and cucumbers
One of the tricks you can use to help remove the water from the tomatoes and cucumbers is to place them in a strainer and cover them in a lot of salt. Then when once all of the other ingredients are ready to mix rinse off all of the salt. It is important to make sure you do this or you will have an inedible salad as it will be way too salty. The large amount of salt will draw out a good portion of the water before they are mixed.Â
Making the tabbouleh
You will want to make sure the parsley, mint, shallots, and garlic are minced and chopped finely. The fastest way is with the food processor. Once they are tossed with the bulgur wheat, tomatoes, and cucumber drizzle the dressing over it. It will take more lemon juice and salt than you think and you will probably end up using all of the dressing for this recipe.Â
Looking for other salad recipes?
Quick and Easy Tabbouleh
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Mixing Bowl
- Food processor
- Mason jar
Ingredients
- 1 cup bulgur wheat
- ¾ cup parsley chopped
- ½ cup mint chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes quartered
- 1 cup cucumber seedless. diced
- 1½ tsp salt
- â…“ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 shallot minced
Instructions
- In a saucepan bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add the bulgur wheat, reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 12 minutes or by instructions on the package. Drain and allow to cool.
- In a food processor add the parsley, mint, shallot, and garlic cloves. Pulse until the herbs are finely chopped.
- In a mason jar add the lemon juice, salt, and olive oil together. Close and shake the jar until the contents are mixed.
- In a large bowl combine the bulgur wheat, chopped herb mixture, tomatoes, and cucumbers and mix. Drizzle in the dressing until evenly coated. You may not use all of the dressing.
Nutrition
Anything quick and easy is good in my books! This looks so good, I am so excited to try this!
This was the perfect side dish for grilled chicken! Everyone loved it.
You always teach me something new! First time I made a tabbouleh and it was great, no leftovers to store, wow, thanks!
Absolutely delicious and colourful salad, I enjoyed making it yesterday for our BBQ. We loved it.
Tabbouleh is one of my favorites and this recipe was so easy to make myself at home! I’m so glad I found it!
This tabbouleh was delicious! With the mint and cucumber, it was so fresh tasting and made for the perfect side dish with some burgers we smoked this weekend. Great recipe!
I love all the herbs and flavors in this tabbouleh. It was a nice and light salad that was perfect for a bbq.
This is one of my favorite summer sides. So so delicious. I love how fresh it is!
I made this tabbouleh by following your recipe. It came out wonderful.
The salad was light and the flavors of lemon juice and herbs made it amazing.
A colorful Bowl of some healthy meal by itself. A must try recipe.