Tabbouleh

This Tabbouleh recipe is one I got from my mom, so she gets full credit for this recipe. If I were to try and guess which year, it would have been around 1992. Yikes I’m old.

Shortly after I moved to Vancouver my mom started seeing a nutritionist and taking better care of herself. I learned a lot from her in those years whenever I would come home to visit. Tabbouleh is one of the many new foods she introduced me to. Better explained Tabbouleh is a Levantine Arab salad traditionally made of bulgur, tomatoes, cucumbers, finely chopped parsley, mint, onion, and garlic and seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt.

I really enjoyed this new to me salad and it has become a 20 year (so far) keeper. On the original handwritten recipe, my mom adds other items to her salad. Things like olives, garlic, feta cheese. For me I love an authentic tabbouleh although it tends to have way more parsley and less bulgar wheat then how I make mine. I ate this salad often when I was Single in The City (Vancouver). Recently, and much to my surprise, my husband has decided he likes it to. There is hope!

Did you know, by the way, parsley is a nutritional powerhouse with vitamins A, B, C and K and the minerals iron and potassium. Another reason to try and like tabbouleh or add parsley to your soups, salads and smoothies. It’s not just a garnish anymore.

Like quinoa, I cook a batch of bulgar (1 part bulgar to 2 parts water), let it cool and store it in the fridge. I also like lots of lemon in mine, so you may want to cut back on the lemon the first time you make it if you don’t like it so tangy.

You could also substitute quinoa for bulgar wheat and have a Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad instead.