Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad: a Traditional Recipe With a Twist

For those who don’t know, Tabbouleh is originally a Middle Eastern dish usually made up of bulgur, parsley, mint, tomato, onion, and seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic. Parsley is said to be high in vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, calcium, iron, and antioxidants, making Tabbouleh a really nutritious salad choice. And here we were thinking parsley was just a garnish!

I love using the traditional bulgur (cracked wheat) in my Tabbouleh, but in typical modern day style I decided to recreate a gluten-free Tabbouleh Salad option using one of our favourite seeds, Quinoa. You can also add cucumber to this recipe.

Recipe:

Serves 4-6

4 cups Parsley chopped
½ cup Mint Leaves torn
1 ½ cups cooked Quinoa
2 Tomatoes diced
¾ Red Onion diced
2 tbsp Olive Oil
½ Lemon juice
1 clove Garlic crushed
Sea Salt

Method:

- Rinse and strain 1 cup of dry quinoa and place in a saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to boil then reduce to simmer and let sit to absorb the water for around 10 to 15 minutes. This should make about 1 ½ to 2 cups of cooked quinoa.

- While you’re waiting for quinoa to cook, place parsley, mint, tomato and red onion in a large salad bowl

- Once quinoa is ready remove from heat, add olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and salt to the saucepan and stir through

- Add quinoa mix to parsley mix and toss salad to combine ingredients

 

 

The tabouleh can be served as a side salad or on lettuce leaves as a main dish. I also use it as a filling in tacos and wholegrain wraps. 

Enjoy!