SaveThis Lebanese tabbouleh salad recipe (also called tabouli or tabooli) is a fresh herb salad with a simple lemon vinaigrette. Get this salad right by using just a little bulgur wheat; the main ingredient here is fresh herbs!
This traditional Lebanese Tabbouleh Salad recipe is both healthy and packed with flavor. My authentic Lebanese recipe includes lots of parsley, mint, tomatoes, and fine bulgur wheat. Tabbouleh is an all-time favorite Lebanese salad because of its very fresh flavor and because it is so light and easy, it goes with all kinds of other foods. The vinaigrette is so delicious that we fight over who gets to dip their pita bread into the juices at the bottom of the salad bowl!
Tabbouleh Salad Recipe Tips
It is tempting to go for a faster way to chop all of the parsley and mint. I know great Lebanese cooks who make tabbouleh using a blender or food processor to chop the herbs. They simply pour off any liquid or consider that liquid a delicious part of the vinaigrette. Tabbouleh made this way is softer in texture. I always chop by hand which is a labor of love (yet less than 30 minutes) but this is to say, you’re not alone if you go the other route!
Play with your tabbouleh! I love to add cucumber for added freshness and crunch. The smaller, thin Persian cukes are great for tabbouleh, but English cucumbers work fine too. Be sure your cucumbers are firm.
What is Tabbouleh Salad?
If you’re asking yourself what cuisine is tabbouleh salad from: it’s Lebanese! Lebanese tabbouleh is essentially a chopped salad. Authentic tabbouleh is made with lots of fresh parsley leaves, diced tomato, thin slices of scallion, fresh mint leaves, and a bit of soaked fine bulgur. The truth of tabbouleh is this: it’s a labor-of-love salad. A salad whose basis is fresh herbs could be nothing but, when you consider how those herbs need special treatment. The washing! The drying! The picking from stems! The chopping…. And then the other ingredients that require a fine chop: the tomatoes and the onions.
The other truth of tabbouleh? It’s SO worth the labor! We may make tabbouleh in small batches for smaller gatherings here because of all of that effort, but when we do, we go all in knowing that this very favorite, very delicious Lebanese salad is going to be so very good.
Here’s everything you need to make tabbouleh:
Parsley.
There are arguments galore about whether tabbouleh should use flat-leaf (Italian) parsley or curly parsley. I’ve used both and both are wonderful. If you do use curly parsley, just be sure to pluck the curly leaves from the not-so-tender stems very well—and chop it like there’s no tomorrow! Finely chop the bunches of parsley, so the texture is fine. If you use flat leaf, just know that there is very little loft (hence: flat) so use more flat leaf parsley than curly parsley.
Mint, fresh and dried.
Lebanese “nana” is fresh mint, the flavor maker of almost every Lebanese salad! This is typically spearmint, which is also the mint you will find in grocery stores. Tabbouleh is primarily a parsley salad, so the mint is a supporting ingredient here but adds tons of the fresh Lebanese flavor we love. Add dried mint to the vinaigrette for an even more traditional Lebanese flavor.
Tomatoes.
Use large tomatoes so you can easily remove the seeds and finely dice the beautiful flesh.
Green onions, scallions.
Easy fresh onion flavor here, not as strong as sweet or yellow onion, the perfect compliment in tabbouleh. The entire stalk of the onion is used, both the white and green parts.
Fine Bulgur.
Also known as #1 (#2 is coarser, #3 more so, and #4 even coarser). Fine bulgur (or bulgar) granules are tiny and will soften in liquid (here, the salad dressing) without the need to be cooked.
Lemon Juice and quality extra virgin olive oil.
These are for the dressing. Use fresh lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil for the best treatment of all of those finely chopped labor-of-love ingredients. The olive oil lemon juice vinaigrette is fabulous on tabbouleh and many Lebanese salads.
The Original Tabbouleh Salad Tabouli
What is tabbouleh made of?
Tabbouleh is made of soaked bulgur wheat, parsley, tomatoes, scallions or onions, mint, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. What is the difference between Tabbouleh and tabouli? What can I use instead of bulgur for Tabbouleh? Where does tabouli salad come from?
How to prepare tabbouleh?
Step 1: Prep the herbs. Prepare the parsley and mint well in advance, the day before serving the tabbouleh if possible, by thoroughly washing and drying it. See this. Step 2: Soak the bulgur. In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and dried mint.
Does tabbouleh have more parsley than bulgur?
As tabbouleh has become more and more westernized, the bulgur (or quinoa, couscous, or cauliflower rice) has started to become an equal player or sometimes even dominating ingredient in the dish. In this case, there is definitely more parsley than bulgur, but likely more bulgur than you would find in traditional tabouli salad.
How do you spell tabouli?
You’ll find a variety of spellings for tabouli, including tabouleh, tabbouleh or tabbouli. However you spell it, you’re in for a refreshing and nutritious meal. This recipe for tabouli is from Taste of Home readers Michael and Mathil Chebat. Bulgur can be cooked either on the stovetop or via the soaking method.