Last week our grocery store had organic parsley, which I haven’t seen all winter. I bought 4 bunches to make tabouli. Tabouli is a Middle Eastern salad traditionally made with parsley, green onions and bulgur wheat, and dressed with extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice and salt. I enjoy making our tabouli with quinoa instead of bulgur wheat. Bulgur wheat isn’t a whole grain because most of the bran is removed before the wheat is parboiled.
We’ll eat our fresh tabouli for dinner tonight, along with hummus, fresh whole wheat-kamut-millet bread and Arabic meatballs.
Haniya helped me with all the tabouli prep work yesterday — washing, drying and picking off the parsley leaves from the stems. This morning I chopped the parsley finely using my Vita-Mix. I put the wet container (with lid on) on the motor base and turned it on to between 5 and 6 (variable speed). Then I dropped handfuls of parsley leaves through the hole in the lid. The leaves fell on the blades, got chopped and moved to the sides of the container. After chopping a few handfuls, I emptied the container into a bowl and repeated the chopping, until all the parsley leaves were chopped.
Here’s my recipe for Quinoa Tabouli. The quinoa must be cooked ahead of time and allowed to cool completely. If the quinoa is even the slightest bit warm, it will cook the parsley — turning it brown — when the salad ingredients are mixed together.
Quinoa Tabouli
- 2 cups quinoa
- 4 cups filtered water
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 5 bunches parsley, washed
- 1 1/2 bunches green onions
- 1-1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil
- 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- garnishes (optional): Romaine lettuce leaves, diced cucumbers, diced tomatoes
Rinse the dry quinoa in a fine sieve under cold running water for 2 minutes to rinse off the bitter saponin coating. Put in a small pot with the 4 cups water and the teaspoon of olive oil. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat. Transfer the quinoa from the pot into a bowl and chill until it is no longer warm.
Pick leaves of parsley off stems. Discard stems or set aside for green smoothies. Chop parsley fine, either by hand, in Vita-Mix, or in food processor. Chop green onions fine by hand. Mix parsley and onions with 7 cups of the cold quinoa, olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Adjust seasonings to taste. Chill. Allow the flavors to mingle for several hours before serving. Give the tabouli a stir just before serving to incorporate the juices throughout.
If desired, scoop servings of tabouli onto Romaine lettuce leaves and top with diced cucumbers and tomatoes.
© Copyright 2006-2008 by Wardeh Harmon
Oh! Oh! Oh! Sounds like another yummy recipe.
You should title these Cooking With Wardeh. 
I actually have some of the quinoa. (That is pronounced keen o wa, right? I have never used quinoa before. I even like saying it. Say it ten times fast. Quinoa Quinoa Quinoa Quinoa Quinoa Quinoa Quinoa Quinoa Quinoa Quinoa
I will enjoy trying this. Perhaps we will try it on Thursday or Friday. We need to get some more parsley. I am incredibly new to using parsley. I bought some at Wild Oats for juicing. This cheaper juicer we have doesn’t juice it properly and much of it was wasted. Do you use the curly or the other parsley? Or does it matter?
Thanks sweetie!
The curly parsely is traditional, but I have used both. I hope you like it!
The quinoa is pronounced “keen-wa”. You’ll have to practice all over again
I searched and searched looking for a quinoa tabouli reccipe and found yours. Thanks … it sounds great.
I hope you’ll like it Elyn!
How much is a bunch of parsley? Can’t wait to try. Thanks!
They’re sold by the bunch at the grocery store. Very scientific, I know
but that’s what I mean by “bunch”.
I just made a recipe like this only I added lime juice and an orange bell pepper and carrots. I didn’t think about subsituting my favorites (tomatoes and cucumbers) for a tabouli recipe though!
Thanks for sharing!
titaniumgirl — That sounds yummy! Thank YOU for sharing. I am going to make this and take it to a brunch in a couple of weeks. I might add some lime juice and bell pepper, thanks to you!
Awww — the link to your whole wheat-kamut-millet bread leads to nothing. I really wanted to see how you do it …
Colleen… oh, I am so sorry about that! I took it down to revise the recipe. I will fix it. Give me a day or so. I’ll email you when the link is working. Thanks for pointing it out to me.
In the meantime, you can follow the whole wheat bread — 2 loaf recipe (or the tutorial), but substitute 1-1/2 cups of kamut flour and 1/2 cup of millet flour for some of the whole wheat flour added after the sponge stage.
The Whole Wheat-Kamut-Millet Bread link is working now.
Thanks for the recipe – I never knew bulgur wasn’t whole – it LOOKS whole…. And quinoa is something I’ve been looking for recipes for. I stumbled in here by accident but am so glad I did!
I hope you enjoy the recipe, critterlover.
I am making the Quinoa Tabouli for the first time and I am beginning to wonder if I got an exceptionally large bunch of parsley… I don’t usually use it. It appears as though I have a bit more chopped parsley than quinoa volume-wise. Does that sound right?
By the way, I love your recipes. I just made the whole wheat bread yesterday and it is awesome.
Thanks!
You might have gotten an exceptionally large bunch, but that’s okay. You really can’t go wrong on the amounts and proportions. It is very forgiving. Adjust the dressings if you need to. Perhaps though you need to chop the parsley more… it should be very, very fine. Then it might not look like so much. It takes a lot of parsley to make this tabouli. The final test is very difficult — if it tastes good, it is good!
I’m so glad you like the bread! Thanks for letting me know.
Let me know if I can help with anything else.
[...] friends that we try to see regularly, Quinoa Tabouli has become a tradition. Even to the point that our friends are the ones who supply most of the [...]
how much does this recipe serve? i am needing to make enough for 15-20 people.
Diane,
This recipe serves my family of 5 for about two meals, where it is served as a side dish. So I’d say 10 servings. If it were me, I’d underestimate at 7 servings (just in case people want seconds). So you’d want at least a triple batch. Hope this helps you in your planning! Enjoy – it is yummy!