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Home Recipes By Type Salads

Tabbouleh Salad

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By: Diana Posted: 1/10/19 Updated: 6/30/22

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.

Tabbouleh is one of the Middle East’s most popular dishes. It’s a salad mainly made with parsley and bulgur. This is the traditional tabbouleh recipe without any twists or extras. Vegan, healthy, refreshing and delicious!

Tabbouleh Salad

As you probably already know, I’m half Jordanian. I grew up in Jordan and always loved Jordanian food. Tabbouleh is one of the salads that somehow always make an appearance on our menu. We eat tabbouleh at least once a week or fortnight, and the whole family loves it.

Authentic Tabbouleh Salad

If you search on Google, you won’t find that many Middle Eastern recipes in English. And if you look for Tabbouleh, for instance, you will get many results but only a few of them are real Tabbouleh recipes. Bloggers from all over the world look for recipes to blog about, and sometimes they come up with their own recipes and call them traditional names that don’t really match. So I’ve seen so many “tabouleh” recipes on the internet, that have nothing to do with the real tabbouleh.

Tabbouleh salad is made with LOTS of parsley and bulgur wheat. I’ve tried other modern variations too, such as quinoa tabbouleh or couscous tabbouleh. And they’re wonderful, as long as the salad is made with a lot of parsley and parsley is the main ingredient.

This tabbouleh is Lebanese/Syrian/Jordanian/Palestinian. It’s made the same way in all of these countries, but I think that it originated from Lebanon.

Tabbouleh Ingredients

Below are the traditional tabbouleh ingredients, and don’t let anyone tell you anything other than this!

  • Fresh parsley leaves
  • Fresh mint leaves
  • Instant bulgur wheat
  • Tomato (that is not too ripe and can hold the shape when diced)
  • Yellow onion (green onion is sometimes added as well)
  • Lemon juice
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and ground black pepper

Some people in the Middle East add a little bit of diced cucumber to tabbouleh but that’s optional.

Tabbouleh Salad ingredients

Tabbouleh Recipe

  1. Wash the instant bulgur wheat, then let it soak in the lemon juice for at least 5 minutes but I prefer if you leave it for longer until the salad is ready and you can mix in the bulgur. It will double in size.
  2. Chop the parsley and mint leaves finely. I usually remove most the stems especially if they’re hard, and work with the leaves. Don’t skip the mint leaves, as they add a lot of flavour and give that lovely freshness to your salad.
  3. Finely dice the tomato and the onion.
  4. Place all the ingredients in a large bowl, give it a good mix and stir in the soaked bulgur.
  5. Add olive oil, salt, and freshly ground black pepper.
  6. Taste the salad, and see if you need to add more salt or lemon juice.

What Is Bulgur Wheat

In Arabic bulgur wheat is called “burghul”. It’s a whole wheat grain that has been cracked and partially pre-cooked. There are 2 kinds of bulgur wheat; instant bulgur and fine grain bulgur.

instant bulgur vs fine grain bulgur

fine-grain bulgur & instant bulgur

In this tabbouleh recipe, instant bulgur is used. It’s usually prepared by being soaked the bulgur in either water or lemon juice. You can use either method, but soaking the bulgur in lemon juice is tastier and that’s also how tabbouleh is traditionally made.

Authentic tabouli salad recipe

What to Serve With

Tabbouleh is also a part of the Arabic Mezze. It’s usually served as an appetiser along with other small appetisers served as mezze before the main dish is served. It’s also perfect for barbecues, and brunches.

You could also make bruschetta-like little tabbouleh bites to be served as appetisers, or canapes on parties.

Middle Eastern Mezze

Arabs LOVE their mezze! If you visit Jordan, go to any traditional restaurant and they will start bringing small plates of mezze (appetisers) to your table before the main dish is served. Many of the mezze dishes are vegetarian and vegan, and there’s always something to suit everyone.

Popular Middle Eastern Mezza includes this tabbouleh salad and other dishes like:

  • Baba Ganoush
  • Classic Hummus
  • Batata Harra
  • Fattet Hummus
  • Galayet Bandora
  • Fatayer Sabanekh
  • Mutabbal

Quinoa Tabbouleh Recipe

As I mentioned above, one of the modern tabbouleh variations that I love is the quinoa tabbouleh. I use white quinoa to make this as it’s the closest in taste and colour to bulgur, it’s slightly sweet and has a fairly similar texture.

Quinoa tabbouleh recipe

Using quinoa is a great way to add some extra protein to this salad, and as quinoa is easier to buy in the UK or the US than bulgur it might be an easier option to make this variation instead of the traditional one.

As long as you make sure that parsley is the main ingredient then this can be called a real tabbouleh salad!

This salad stays fresh if kept in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!

Recipe
5 from 8 votes
(Click stars to rate!)

Tabbouleh

Prep Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 15 mins
Author: Diana
Print Rate Recipe Email Recipe
Middle Eastern salad made mainly from parsley and bulgur. It’s healthy, delicious and refreshing!
4 servings
Middle Eastern salad made mainly from parsley and bulgur. It’s healthy, delicious and refreshing!

Ingredients

  • 300 grams Fresh parsley leaves
  • 50 grams Fresh mint leaves
  • 50 grams Bulgur wheat
  • 1 Tomato
  • 1 Yellow onion green onion is sometimes added as well
  • 1 Lemon juiced
  • 1 tbsp Olive oil
  • Salt and ground black pepper

Instructions

  • Wash the bulgur wheat and let the water run clear, then let it soak in the lemon juice for at least 5 minutes, but it’s preferred if you leave it for longer until the salad is ready and you can mix in the bulgur. It should double in size and before quite soft.
  • Chop the parsley and mint leaves finely. I usually remove most the stems especially if they’re hard, and work with the leaves. Don’t skip the mint leaves, as they add a lot of flavour and give that lovely freshness to your salad.
  • Finely dice the tomato and the onion. You could also add a little bit of cucumber if you wish.
  • Place all the ingredients in a large bowl, give it a good mix and stir in the soaked bulgur.
  • Add olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper.
  • Taste the salad, and see if you need to add more salt or lemon juice. If it’s too dry, add a little bit more of extra virgin olive oil.

Notes:

If making a quinoa tabbouleh, cook 100 grams of white quinoa and mix it in instead of the bulgur.
This salad stays fresh for up to 2 days if kept in the fridge.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 133kcal, Carbohydrates: 22g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 4g, Sodium: 51mg, Potassium: 688mg, Fiber: 7g, Sugar: 3g, Vitamin A: 7105IU, Vitamin C: 124.2mg, Calcium: 155mg, Iron: 5.9mg

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.

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  1. Cassie says

    Posted on 9/27/20 at 22:44

    If I am using quinoa, do I soak it first in lemon before cooking, or would that not do any good?

    Reply
    • Diana says

      Posted on 9/27/20 at 23:20

      I would cook the quinoa first and then add the lemon juice. Enjoy!

      Reply
  2. Charlotte says

    Posted on 8/17/19 at 19:45

    5 stars
    Just like Situ made it.
    Fond memories return.
    Wonderful.
    Thank you.

    Reply
  3. Elena says

    Posted on 6/10/19 at 02:43

    5 stars
    Perfect! Exactly what I hoped for, easy to prep with food processor. Neat trick with the lemon juice and bulgur!

    Reply
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