Tabouli (or "Tabbouleh") is a Mediterranean dish featuring parsley, tomatoes, mint, bulgur wheat, green onions, lemon juice, salt and olive oil. In this version, I leave out the salt and oil, replace the bulgur wheat with millet, and add cucumber and garbanzo beans to give the salad more substance and variety. Enjoy!
Tabouli Salad
- Prep Time: 35 mins.
- Cook Time: 25 mins.
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: Serves 6 (makes about 6 cups salad) 1x
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups water
- ½ cup dry/uncooked millet (or 2½ cups cooked)
- 1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans (or about 1¾ cups), rinsed
- 1½ cups halved or quartered cherry tomatoes
- 1 cup chopped cucumber (peeled or unpeeled)
- ¾ cup chopped fresh parsley (curly or flat Italian)
- 3 green onions (green and white parts)
- 6 tablespoons lemon juice
- ¼ cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves
- 1 to 2 cloves garlic, pressed (or very finely chopped)
Instructions
- Bring the water and millet to a boil in a small to medium saucepan over high heat, uncovered. Reduce the heat to low, then cover and simmer for 25 minutes. While the millet is cooking, you can prepare the remaining ingredients.
- After cooking the millet, remove it from heat and let it sit for 10 minutes with the lid on, then fluff it with a fork, and let cool totally or mostly.
- Add the millet to a large bowl along with all of the remaining ingredients, and toss to combine. Season with black ground pepper if desired. For the best flavor, served chilled after 2 to 3 hours or after refrigerating overnight. Store in an airtight container in the fridge up to 4 days.
Notes
Millet vs. bulgur: Tabouli is traditionally made with bulgur wheat, but since I am a gluten-free recipe site, I do not use any wheat. Instead, for this recipe I use millet, but you could just as easily use 2½ cups cooked quinoa or brown rice. If you do eat wheat and want to use bulgur, just search “how to prepare bulgur” online (couscous is sometimes used as well, but is also wheat and contains gluten).
Cucumbers: I think Persian or English cucumbers work best for this recipe, although regular “slicing” cucumbers work too, I just like to peel them first and take the seeds/soft center out before chopping.
How to serve tabouli: You can eat this as a salad or as a side dish to a meal, in lettuce leaves or in steamed corn tortillas, or with falafel and hummus. (It is often served with pita bread or pita chips, but pita is made with wheat, which I don't use.)
Additions: Some fun additions or substitutions ideas: chopped avocado, radish, red bell pepper, cilantro, pomegranate seeds, fresh fennel, and/or finely chopped raw cauliflower.
Last thoughts: This salad is very adjustable, so if you want more or less of parsley or lemon juice, or anything else, feel free to do what you like. This recipe is usually very parsley-heavy, which I have adjusted down a bit. Also, you may be tempted to skip the mint, but it really makes the dish.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 186
- Sugar: 5 g
- Sodium: 14 mg
- Fat: 2 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 35 g
- Fiber: 6 g
- Protein: 8 g
- Cholesterol: 0
Thank you Cathy. I have made this with once bulgur and once with millet. It's delicious both ways.
Oh good! 🙂 Thanks Lori!
Thanks Cathy. Really enjoyed. My wife doesn't like tomato so substituted watermelon. It worked really well. Thanks again!
Ooh, that sounds good! 🙂 Thanks Mark!
I love this recipe. I added some finely chopped kale.
Yay! 🙂 Thanks David!