Tabouleh (Lebanese Salad)

Italian Flat-Leaf Parsley, Fresh from our Garden

Tabouleh is a Parsley Salad, originally a Lebanese dish which has become very popular throughout the Middle Eastern region. It is often used as a complement to a dish such as khiar mahshi or it is utilised, without the addition of the crushed wheat, as part of the filling for when you stuff vegetables and leaves with a vegetarian (as opposed to meat-based) stuffing. Personally, we actually tend to make the salad without the crushed wheat anyway, but that's personal preference for you.

Estimated preparation time is 5 – 7 minutes. 

Specialist equipment – a large chopping knife would be recommended. 

Tabouleh Salad Recipe

Salad for four people (or more, if they take small servings thereof) 

Bunches of fresh parsley – enough to make at least 4 cups of parsley, chopped fine 

Juice of one lemon 

2 medium sized tomatoes, chopped very fine 

1 small onion, chopped very fine 

2 tbs or less of salt 

1 ½ tbs burgur / bulgar crushed wheat 

½ cup olive oil 

Wash parsley well. The Middle East utilises the flat-leafed variety of parsley (also known as Italian parsley to those who grow heirloom seed varieties), but the curley-leafed variety is equally acceptable, though I think a tad stronger. Parsley is, of course, packed full of Vitamin C, so this is a wonderfully nutritious dish and makes for a nice change as a salad. They sell absolutely huge bunches of the stuff in the Middle East (large enough that I could hardly cup the largest circumference of the bunch between my two cupped hands, without squeezing), so we’d use two bunches here, I’d estimate about 4 bunches in South Africa, depending on how large the bunch is (OK, next time I'll weigh them, promise). 

Chop parsley fine with a large knife, working from the tips towards where the stalks begin. You do not chop it again, just utilise single strokes working down. If you are making the dish before-hand, and chilling for a few hours in the fridge, you would: 

Sprinkle dried, cracked wheat (bulgar wheat we call it) on top of parsley. 

Mush up finely chopped onion with salt, place on one edge of the parsley, pour lemon juice on top of the onion. The addition of salt and lemon to the onion reduces its characteristic odour and also softens it. 

Place chopped-up tomatoes on another edge. 

Cover and put in fridge. 

One hour before you are to serve the salad, pour olive oil on top of it and stir. 

Notes: Obviously, it is best made absolutely fresh, but that is not always possible. The relative proportions of ingredients to each other is according to taste, but I have found the amount of onion used is minimal (often constituting less than half a small onion). The cracked wheat soaks up the juices and becomes soft, so given a choice between smaller or larger particles of crushed wheat, I advocate the smaller. 

NB: You will need to keep this recipe handy, since it is used as part of a vegetarian filling for vegetables and leaves (minus the cracked wheat), that is, whenever you are to serve the stuffed vegetables cold. Any vegetables stuffed with meat, such as mutton, are always served hot, such as in the case of khiar mahshi. In this instance, however, tabouleh would often accompany the dish.