Tabouli Salad: A Lebanese Tabbouleh Recipe - Maureen Abood (2024)

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This 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!

(Read my story about tabbouleh-love here!)

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.

Tabouli Ingredients

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.

How to Make 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. Add the bulgur and set aside to soften for 15 minutes while you make the salad. Soaking the bulgur will help to soften it.

Step 3: Chop the ingredients. Every ingredient in tabbouleh is finely chopped. The original chopped salad! Use a big sharp knife to chop the parsley, mint, tomatoes, and scallions.

Step 4: Assemble. Combine vegetables, herbs, softened bulgur, and vinaigrette in a medium bowl or serving bowl. Stir, taste, and adjust seasoning.

How to Serve Tabbouleh

Lebanese tabbouleh salad is traditionally eaten with romaine lettuce leaves as little scoops. Serve tabbouleh on a platter in lettuce cups, either Little Gem romaine or the smaller butter lettuce leaves. This way tabbouleh can become finger food!! Little tacos! Perfect at a cookout or picnic. Or you can serve tabbouleh from a salad bowl. Tabbouleh is delicious on its own, eaten with thin pita bread so you can dip the bread in the juices on your plate or the salad bowl. It is the ultimate cookout salad because it pairs so perfectly with any grilled meat, fish, or vegetable whatsoever. Tabbouleh with hummus is one of the world’s all-time greatest food pairings (albeit a sleeper!). Check out my Tabbouleh Hummus Platter.

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.

How to Store Tabouli Salad

You can keep tabbouleh in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. It’s important to try and drain some of the juice out before refrigerating leftover tabouli. The flavors will continue to meld and taste great.

Make-Ahead Instructions

You can easily make this tabbouleh recipe ahead of time by storing each element separately.

Make the vinaigrette and keep it in an airtight container. Rinse the bulgur and cover it with cold water in a bowl. Soak for 15 minutes, drain, and squeeze out any excess water. Keep the bulgur in an airtight container as well. Put all the chopped vegetables and herbs in individual airtight containers or ziploc bags.

When you’re ready to serve, put all the salad components into a serving bowl and toss to combine.

Tabbouleh Salad FAQ

Other Tabbouleh Salad Recipes

Avocado Tabbouleh

Quinoa Tabbouleh, for a gluten free version of tabouli

Tabbouleh Hummus Platter

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