Authentic Lebanese tabbouleh is a popular mediterranean salad & essential to my dinner spread! It's also the PERFECT salad for spring or summer. It's fresh, light, full of those spring green onions and yummy fresh herbs.
SO GOOD! I've learned this recipe first hand from my husband's Lebanese family. It's easy to make at home and one of my favorite things to serve with mediterranean food.
I am pretty picky about my tabouli, I love it super lemon-y and loaded with little pops of cherry tomato in every single bite. It is a very simple salad, but if you mess with the ratios it can taste really "meh."
What is Tabbouleh Salad?
Lebanese Tabbouleh salad is a classic Middle Eastern salad with bright flavors and a simple olive oil lemon dressing. The star of the show: a lot of parsley. The main ingredient is what gives this green salad it's fresh flavor.
Big bunches of parsley combined with soaked bulgar wheat and loaded with ripe tomatoes, cucumber and a little bit of fresh mint leaves. Some recipes even add a bit of pomegranate molasses for sweetness.
There can be a lot of variations of tabbouleh from family to family. People might say there is the traditional way, but to be honest, there is no wrong way! This bulgur salad is what is traditional to our family and when I made it the original recipe for the first time, it instantly became one of my favorite salads.
I attend a largely Lebanese church, and there are tabbouleh police for sure! This one has passed the test as an authentic Lebanese version, which is such an important thing to me. I love cooking a good traditional recipe from my husbands family as that's one of the reasons I started this blog.
Is It Healthy?
OH YES! Loaded with leafy greens, whole grain, - you will no doubt get your vegetable servings in for the day. This is a perfect option for a light lunch, serve it with my Chicken Kafta burgers on the side for a lean and green dinner.
It also has the cracked bulgur wheat and an olive oil and lemon dressing and while it all sounds simple, when you use good quality ingredients you're serving up a hearty and healthy dish that you can definitely feel good about.
Tabbouleh Salad Recipe
The ingredients are standard in most every tabouli recipe:
- lots of parsley (curly parsley, flat parsley, or Italian parsley works)
- lemon juice
- fine bulgar wheat (can substitute cracked wheat if that's what you find at your local grocery store!)
- fresh tomatoes
- green onion (could also use red onion, white onion, or even a shallot)
- diced cucumber
- mint
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt & pepper
- cold water (I like to soak it in cold water but you could use hot water to speed up the process!)
Simple enough, right? The combo of these few simple ingredients will add amazing fresh flavor to any dinner table you set!
We love to eat it with traditional Lebanese recipes like pita bread, Kibbeh nayeh, baked kibbeh, Chicken Kafta, Lebanese Spinach fatayers, or Kousa but it makes a great side for anything. Especially during the Spring and Summer.
Tools Needed
Making this perfect side dish doesn't require many tools. You'll need a sharp knife, food processor, a salad spinner, and an airtight container for storage.
I've found that for the best results, I remove the stems of the bunches of parsley with the knife and then add that to the food processor to chop finely along with the onion. It gets the fresh parsley very finely chopped and
Making Authentic Tabbouleh
Middle Eastern cuisines have deceptively easy recipes in my opinion, this parsley salad is not an exception! Here is how to make the best tabbouleh....
- Wash and dry all produce using a salad spinner.
- In a small bowl combine the bulgar with cold water and let soak for 30 minutes up to overnight. If you want to soak it faster than that, combine it with boiling water while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
- Remove stems of the parsley and place leaves in the food processor.
- Pulse until very fine. You may need to do this in two batches! This may seem like too much parsley, but it's perfect!
- Roughly chop the rest of the ingredients (onion, mint, cucumber, and tomatoes) and place in a large bowl.
- Add the chopped parsley to the large bowl
- Once the bulgur soaks and has become soft, I like to let it come to room temperature but you don't have to wait if you are in a pinch!
- Squeeze out the excess water, it may just be a small amount or none at all.
- Add in the lemon juice, olive oil, and salt to the bulgar and stir.
- Add this mixture to the veggies in the large bowl and toss well.
- Give it a taste and add more lemon or salt as needed.
- Refrigerate for at least an hour for the best flavor!
Substitutions
Most of these ingredients should be fairly easy to find. The only one that might be tricky is the fine bulgur wheat. It may also be labeled cracked wheat in grocery stores and you'd likely find it in the international isle.
You could substitute in cooked quinoa or even cauliflower rice to make quinoa tabbouleh.
Adding feta cheese is a delicious idea and creates one more texture to this amazing salad.
Sub in any type of finely chopped tomato if you don't have cherry tomatoes.
How To Use Leftover Tabouli Salad
After making this recipe by request of my husband again and again and again...we started to have a lot of leftovers.
The next day, I came up with a tabbouleh salad chicken wrap! It's basically the perfect bite, every bite. It's a great main dish for lunch or a light dinner.
I layer a wrap with hummus, tabouli, and grilled chicken for the ultimate lunch! Who doesn't have a bit of leftover chicken laying around that could get used up?! So let's make a wrap & some tabouli!
It's a great recipe to prep at the beginning of the week and enjoy for many meals. We even like to jazz it up with feta cheese sometimes.
Interested in more salad ideas similar to this easy recipe? While tabouli is a traditional Lebanese salad, perhaps try this greek Marouli salad or this Parsley and Lemon Carrot Salad
📖 Recipe
Authentic Tabbouleh Salad
Equipment
- 1 sharp knife
- 1 Food Processor
- 1 cutting board
- 1 salad spinner
Ingredients
- 2 bunches of parsley
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 5 green onions
- 10-15 mint leaves
- ½ cup olive oil
- ½ cup bulgar wheat (or fine cracked wheat)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- juice of 1 lemon
- cold water
Instructions
- Wash and dry all produce using a salad spinner.
- In a small bowl combine the bulgar with cold water and let soak for 30 minutes up to overnight. If you want to soak it faster than that, combine it with boiling water while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
- Remove stems of the parsley and place leaves in the food processor.
- Pulse until very fine. You may need to do this in two batches! This may seem like too much parsley, but it's perfect!
- Roughly chop the rest of the ingredients (onion, mint, cucumber, and tomatoes) and place in a large bowl.
- Add the chopped parsley to the large bowl
- Once the bulgur soaks and has become soft, I like to let it come to room temperature but you don't have to wait if you are in a pinch!
- Squeeze out the excess water, it may just be a small amount or none at all.
- Add in the lemon juice, olive oil, and salt to the bulgar and stir.
- Add this mixture to the veggies in the large bowl and toss well.
- Give it a taste and add more lemon or salt as needed.
- Refrigerate for at least an hour for the best flavor!
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