Tabouli Salad
Let’s face it: if eating healthy were easy, we’d all be doing it. It’s not that we don’t know how. We’ve all been hearing the same advice for years: eat lots of fruits, veggies, and whole grains, and go easy on the sweets, meats, and fried stuff. But so many of those bad-for-you foods just taste so good, and so many healthy ones, well, don’t.
Clearly, what we all need more of is recipes that are long on both nutrition and flavor. Like, for example, this Tabouli Salad (Tabbouleh Salad). Everything in here is the kind of stuff your doctor wants you to eat more of: whole-grain bulgur wheat, fresh veggies and herbs, and a dressing made of lemon juice and heart-healthy olive oil. But it’s also completely bursting with flavor from the nutty bulgur, tangy tomatoes, mild cucumber, zesty onion, parsley, mint, and fresh lemon juice. And the combination of leafy herbs, chewy bulgur, crisp onion, tender tomato, and cool cucumber gives it a great blend of textures, too.
In short, this Tabouli Salad is the most special kind of dish: one that your taste buds and the rest of your body will feel equally good about.
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How to make Tabouli Salad
- SEE RECIPE NOTE about bulgar wheat. If soaking, place bulgar wheat in a large mixing bowl. Pour 2 cups of boiling water over bulgar wheat. Set aside while you chop your veggies.
- After you are done cutting your vegetables, drain the wheat and pat it dry. Add all of the veggies and herbs to the wheat.
- Mix the olive oil and lemon juice to the salad and stir to incorporate the juice throughout. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Allow the salad to set in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, but this salad really peaks in flavor if left to set overnight.
The bulgur doesn’t need to be cooked? Won’t it be too crunchy?
- Nope! Just a quick soak in boiling water will get it slightly tender, and the moisture from the dressing finishes the job as the salad chills. And if you’re using extra-fine bulgur, you don’t even need to soak it.
Can I use regular tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes?
- You can as long as they’re nice and firm. And make sure not to skip the draining step – it’s important to get the excess juice out of there so your salad doesn’t end up waterlogged.
Is this a main course or a side dish?
- Depends on what you want. For a light meal, you could serve it on its own with just some bread or pita wedges on the side. But it would also make a nice side dish with any Mediterranean-themed main course, such as this Easy Baked Salmon with Creamy Lemon Yogurt Sauce.
Don’t forget to pack your leftovers for lunch! We love to use EasyLunchboxes!
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Tabouli Salad
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Ingredients
- 3/4 cup bulgur wheat uncooked
- 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice about 2 lemons
- 2 cups of cherry tomatoes chopped
- 1 cup of a chopped cucumber
- 1/2 of a small red onion diced
- 2 cups of fresh parsley coarsely chopped
- 1 cup of fresh mint coarsely chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- SEE RECIPE NOTE about bulgar wheat. If soaking, place bulgar wheat in a large mixing bowl. Pour 2 cups of boiling water over bulgar wheat. Set aside while you chop your veggies.
- After you are done cutting your vegetables, drain the wheat and pat it dry. Add all of the veggies and herbs to the wheat.
- Mix the olive oil and lemon juice to the salad and stir to incorporate the juice throughout. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Allow the salad to set in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, but this salad really peaks in flavor if left to set overnight.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer: Family Fresh Meals is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
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This recipe sounds delish. But my question is what kind of mint do I use? I find many recipes calling for mint but no one says what type.
I used fresh spearmint. A lot of the packages at the grocery store will just have “mint” on the label. So that is why the general mint ingredient is listed in most recipes.
Can you use couscous instead of bulgur?
I think that would work out ok 🙂