Tabouli, or tabbouleh, is essentially a parsley salad. There is a little bit of bulgar wheat in it but the parsley is intended to be the star and carry the day. David Lebovitz even did a post about it about a month ago on his blog and you can see that it’s basically just a bowl of chopped herbs. Now, I love parsley as much as the next guy, except, well, maybe I don’t. I mean I do. But, I don’t. Do you know what I mean? I mean, parsley’s great at being a supporting player but I’m not really crazy about giving it the starring role.
So, enter my “tabouli” recipe. It’s totally inauthentic in that I completely mess with the ingredient ratios and add in a few items that were not supposed to be there originally (like the zucchini). But, then again, I haven’t gone so far as to throw in chickpeas yet so at least I haven’t gone completely round the bend! But in the end it comes out tasting really good. Perhaps I should give it a new name like “Bulgar Wheat, Vegetable, and Parsley Salad”… but, I don’t like that as much, and it’s my blog, so there.
I find that tabouli makes a lovely summer side dish in that it requires little, if any, actual cooking and is served cold. I like to make it earlier in the day and stick it into the fridge to let the flavors mingle, but you can serve it as soon as it’s dressed also. We eat it alongside cold roasted chicken and it nicely complete the meal. You make them both ahead of time and you have a cool and “instant” meal waiting for you when you get home from work.
Sounds like a great cold lunch to bring to the beach!