Tabouleh is a delicious, nutritious, and healthy Salad. There's no better way to celebrate Tabouleh Day than by using the freshest garden ingredients for this sumptuous salad.
Tabouleh is as Lebanese as cedar and pine trees. Every Lebanese home eats this refreshing and nutritious salad.
The way to tell if the tabouleh is authentic Lebanese? If it is green, not tan. What do we mean? It has to have a lot more parsley than bulgur. I have never eaten tabouleh in Lebanon that had more bulgur than parsley. Also, you must use na'na mint, not regular spearmint. نعنع Na'na is the authentic Lebanese mint, and is mild not bitter and excellent for fresh salads. Na'na plants are available in the USA at LebaneseMint.com
TABOULEH RECIPE (تبولة): This is my mother's recipe.
(also spelled tabbouli, tabouli, taboule, tabbooli)
Bulgur (البرغل) wheat swells after it is reconstituted, so a cup of dry bulger makes a large container of tabbouli
If you wish, you can chop all vegetables using a food processor, working in small batches and short pulses to keep from over processing. It is a lot less work than chopping all this stuff, but surely grandma would disapprove
1/2 cup cracked wheat (bulgur), soaked in cold water for 1 1/2 hours
4-5 large tomatoes, cored, and diced
4-5 large bunches fresh parsley, remove stems, chop the leaves. Dry.
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 cup fresh nana mint leaves, chopped (authentic Lebanese cooks use nana, not spearmint. Nana is available in the USA at www.LebaneseMint.com)
1 teaspoon Allspice
3 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
Lemon to taste (about 3 lemons or 12 Tablespoons)
1/2 cup cold pressed extra virgin olive oil (or more to taste)
[P.S. some cooks add 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon]
[P.S. when using store bought tomatoes that lack taste, use this trick: In addition to the diced tomatoes, squeeze some Roma tomatoes and add the juice to the bowl. It will increase the taste five fold).
The secret art of truly good tabouleh lies in the way you chop the ingredients.
The dry bulgur is soaked for 60-90 minutes in cold water, then drained. Place in a large bowl, and add the remainder of the ingredients. The mixture is placed in a refrigerator for at least 1 hour to cool and to allow the bulgur to absorb the juices from the vegetables and to swell. Add salt and adjust lemon to taste.
Tabouleh is eaten with lettuce leaves, fresh vine leaves (grape vine), or white cabbage leaves. Eat by scooping tabbouli in the leaf and rolling into a loose pouch.
Buy a live nana mint plant at www.LebaneseMint.com