I don’t know if any of you have ever heard of (or tried) Tabbouleh. It’s a delicious dish from the Middle East. I love it. Brett loves it more. It’s absolutely wonderful, especially when it’s been over 100 degrees here for the last week and the thought of turning on my stove (let alone my oven, even in central air) is enough to make me sweat. We had gone away over Memorial Day to DelFest, a music festival in Maryland and had some of the best hummus, tabbouleh, and falafel that we’d ever tasted. Brett had an Egyptian stepmother when he was a child and he always said hers was the best, until we’d tried this.

Well, way to throw me a challenge. I’d been thinking about it lately (probably because it was so hot I didn’t want to eat anything) and thought I’d give it a whirl. I did some digging to find out about it and what the differences were.

Tabbouleh (Arabic: تبولة‎; also tabouleh or tab(b)ouli) is a Levantine salad dish. Traditionally a mountain dish from the Lebanon, and one of the Lebanese main dishes, it has become one of the most popular salads in the non-Persian side of the Middle East.

Its primary ingredients are finely chopped parsley, bulgur, mint, tomato, spring onion, and other herbs with lemon juice, olive oil and various seasonings, generally including black pepper and sometimes cinnamon and allspice.

In the Arab world, but particularly the Greater Syrian region, it is usually served as part of the mezze, and is served with romaine lettuce. The Lebanese use more parsley than bulgur wheat in their dish.

A Turkish variation of the dish is known as kısır, while a similar Armenian dish is known as eetch. In Cyprus, where the dish was introduced by the Lebanese, it is known as tambouli.

Anyway, what I found was that most tabbouleh here in America is crap. It’s made with cous cous, and is more of a rice-y type dish than what it’s meant for – almost a palette cleanser between spicy Arabic dishes.
I found that in authentic tabbouleh, the parsley is the star, not the grains. I definitely can taste the difference. So here’s what I found:

You’ll need:

1/2 cup bulgur, fine cracked wheat
juice of 4-5 lemons
3 bunches fresh parsley, finely chopped
handful fresh mint, finely sliced (optional)
3 medium tomatoes, diced
6 green onions, thinly sliced (with green stems)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt (to taste)
romaine leaves, for serving

Soak the bulgur in the juice of 2 lemons until it’s all absorbed (about 30-40 minutes). The parsley takes the longest. In Lebanon, they use flat leaf parsley and thinly slice it little by little. I don’t have that kind of time. I found nutritionunplugged.com, she recommended using curly parsley and pulsing it in a food processor. I used my coffee grinder. It came out perfect. I tossed it all together with the tomatoes, added the olive oil, the juice of 2 more lemons, and a bit of salt. I opted to leave the mint out. That was because I didn’t have any inside, and didn’t feel like venturing to the back of my yard to get a few leaves. It’s delicious. So much so that I’m eating more of it right now. You can serve it with raw vegetables, pitas, or just scoop it up with some romaine leaves. I eat it with whole wheat pitas because I usually make hummus with it as well.

This is healthy, and a great snack when you want something light but filling! Enjoy!