Tabbouleh (tangy parsley salad recipe)

Tabbouleh parsley salad is a common side dish in Middle East. Its spicy and tangy flavour goes well with meat dishes, particularly grilled and barbecued meats, and is also delicious with grilled cheese recipes. The dish is normally also served as part of a mazza.

Authentic Tabbouleh contains about three quarters of parsley and one quarter of other ingredients. The exact ingredients differ from region to region. The recipe below shows Tabbouleh as it is made in Damascus, where the authentic cuisine normally does not use a whole lot of spices. Instead of (or together with) the black pepper you can use allspice, baharat spice mix, or as they do in Aleppo, Aleppo peppers.

Prep time: 40 mins | Cook time: 20 mins | Total time: 60 mins

Ingredients

250 g Flat leaf parsley (before trimming the stalks)
30 g Mint leaves
50 g Fine Bulgar wheat
Small red onion
One tomato
1 tsp Sumac
1/2 tsp Black pepper
1-2 Lemon according to taste
Salt
4-5 tbsp Olive oil

Directions

1. Start by washing and soaking the Bulgar wheat in cold water for 30 minutes.
The secret to nice crisp tabbouleh is a very sharp knife to chop the parsley without bruising the leafs. Chop the parsley, mint, onion and tomato finely. Drain the Bulgar and squeeze the extra water. Squeeze the lemons.

2. Mix all the ingredients. And leave for around 30 minutes before serving.

3. We like to serve tabbouleh with lettuce in Syria. We use lettuce leaves to make small wraps full of the tangy salad

Yield 3