How To Make Tabouleh
- September 5, 2013
- by Melissa Lawrence
Hello, hello! Hope the first week of school (or fall) has been lovely for all of you. My boys start tomorrow (Friday) so I am getting this recipe out tonight because I know tomorrow will be busy, busy. Getting this up was fun because it brought me back to summer. Immersed in fall activity planning all day, summer seems already so far away (sniff!).
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Tabouleh is such a fresh, summery light dish and such a practical dish for moms because you can make it the day before and keep it for days to use around other main dishes. So in some ways, it’s easier than your average healthy salad that you usually need to prepare daily for it to taste fresh. I played around with it this August. I actually started with bulgar and made that twice, before moving to couscous, which I found to be even lighter. My friend Sarah’s Mom Anne was visiting us from France and she pretty much walked me through, so here’s a special thanks to the moms of my French family Anne and Sarah!
Here are the ingredients you need to make my easy tabouli recipe:
- Couscous
- 4 vine-ripened tomatoes (the juicier and sweeter, the better), chopped small
- Two cucumbers, peeled, and chopped small
- One cup finely chopped parsley
- One cup finely chopped mint
- Juice of 8 lemons
- 4-8 tablespoons full of good olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Here are the steps. Prepare your couscous according to the instructions. I used two cups of water for two cups of couscous, boiled the water with a smattering of butter and salt, and poured that into the dry couscous. This I mixed well, and covered, then allowed to cool.
Next up, I added some super fresh, delicious tomatoes. I used four. Here they are chopped, and then mixed into the couscous which had cooled by that point.
Next up, mix in your cucumbers, which should be chopped even smaller than the tomatoes because they won’t get as mushy.
Next add your parsley and mint. Both of these you can chop with scissors! Annaliese did this for me, and she loved doing it, so it’s a nice project to give your kiddies.
By this point, you are ready to add lemons and oil, salt and pepper. This is really something you can do according to your individual tastes. What worked best for me was to add the juice of four lemons, and two tablespoonfuls of olive oil. I covered this mixture and allowed it to just sit overnight. Next morning, I added more lemon juice (from four more lemons) and around two more tablespoonfuls of oil, plus a dash more salt and pepper.
Here’s the final result!
If you want an even greener salad, up the amount of parsley and mint. Or for something less tart, use fewer lemons. I think you can’t go wrong with tabouleh like this.
My whole family feasted on this along with grilled steak, summer corn and green salad. I could get two of my kids to try it, that’s over 50% so I’m considering that a success. Happily the left-overs became part of our lunch for the next few days.
Give it a try, and let me know what you think!
Happy end of summer. Talk to you guys next week.
xo Melissa
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