This Tabouleh or Tabouli with Lemon Tahini Dressing is the best tabouleh recipe you can imagine – all made in a food processor. The quinoa makes this salad gluten-free while adding a bunch of nutritional value and texture!
If you’ve ever dreaded chopping tabouleh or ever wondered how to get started with homemade tabouleh or making tabouleh gluten free —you can’t miss this tabouleh salad!
TABOULEH/TABOULI
Tabouleh or Tabouli is basically a chopped parsley salad. So think of a Caesar salad and replace lettuce with parsley sort of thing.
So many things are added to flavor the parsley, but there’s never a right or wrong with tabouli. The most common ingredients you’ll find are: fresh mint leaves, chopped tomatoes, scallions and bulgur.
Since tabouli or tabouleh salad relies mainly on the fresh minced parsley, you can imagine the time it could take! However, I’ve found a fabulous trick to this!
HOW TO MAKE TABOULEH/TABOULI
This speedy tabouli salad is made in a food processor. Yes. So no more chopping for hours when making homemade tabouli.
At first, I pulsed everything together and it did an okay job. Some pieces were too fine others weren’t, as I processed even more, those fine pieces went watery and lost much of their freshness.
It was near the end of the day and I couldn’t afford to give up. So I stuck to that food processor and 4 batches later it just happened. A perfect tabouleh in 10 minutes rather than 10 hours!
Start by processing the scallions and mint, then remove them from the food processor and transfer them into a large bowl.
Now, you need to make sure parsley leaves are processed in several smaller batches to ensure they all have pretty much the same size and texture. Just dump each batch of ready to go parsley into a large bowl so you don’t avoid crowding your food processor.
When it comes to the tomatoes, well they are easily done by hand or quartered and pulsed in the food processor. Make sure to discard any tomato water after processing – it will make your tabouli salad soggy.
LEMON TAHINI DRESSING
Usually, a classic tabouleh is seasoned with only lemon juice and olive oil. That’s what I do here too, but I love to keep this perfect tahini sauce on the side and drizzle it on top of my tabouli salad.
It’s a tangy lemon tahini dressing made with a video too and all you need to know about tahini! Make sure you read the post!
I can’t stress this enough, make sure you give your tabouli salad a drizzle of tahini sauce!
I tend to keep the sauce aside and find that almost everyone who tries it over their tabouleh can’t get enough 🙂 So I’m declaring the Perfect Tahini Sauce as the official tabouleh sauce.
QUINOA TABOULI
Let’s talk about quinoa for a second! The addition of quinoa makes this salad gluten-free while adding a bunch of benefits!
Aside from how healthy and loaded with protein quinoa is,(you can read more about quinoa and quinoa preparation in this how to cook quinoa post) it also adds such a unique texture to your tabouli.
Crunchy and nutty yet also chewy. I’ve tried millet, bulgur, farro and buckwheat. By far quinoa is my favorite!
TABOULEH TIPS
- Do not crowd your food processor when chopping the herbs. Make sure to do the chopping in batches so you don’t end up with watery tabouli salad.
- I encourage you to make the perfect tahini sauce with your tabouleh and keep it on the side so that everyone can help themselves.
- For meal prep, store all the chopped ingredients and cooked quinoa, as well as the sauce, separately and assemble last minute.
- Tabouli can be stored in the fridge and enjoyed for 2 days.
QUINOA RECPES
- One Pot Quinoa Sweet Potato Salad
- Balsamic Kale Quinoa Chickpea Protein Bowl
- Quinoa Sweet Potato Lentil Soup
Tabouleh or Tabouli With Lemon Tahini Dressing
This Tabouleh or Tabouli with Lemon Tahini Dressing is the best tabouleh recipe you can imagine - all made in a food processor. The quinoa makes this salad gluten-free while adding a bunch of nutritional value and texture!
Ingredients
- 5 scallions
- 1 bunch fresh mint leaves (about 1 cup)
- 2-3 bunches fresh parsley (about 4-6 cups)
- 2 Roma tomatoes or 3 tomatoes on the vine
- 1 teaspoon salt
- large lemon or lime juiced
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 -1 cup cup cooked quinoa ( from how to cook quinoa) amount is to your taste-I prefer 1/2 cup only
- Perfect Tahini sauce recipe see link
Instructions
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Place the scallions and mint in your food processor and process until they’re finely minced, but not bruised. Remove them into a large bowl and set aside.
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In the same food processor start pulsing the parsley in 3 batches. Make sure not to fill the processor bowl more than halfway and pulse rather than process to make sure the parsley is the same size and all ready at the same time.
Remove the parsley and place in the bowl with the mint scallion mixture. Repeat until all the parsley is done.
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Finely chop the tomatoes or quarter them and pulse in the food processor until chopped into small dice size pieces. Remove the tomatoes into the parsley-mint mixture making sure to leave any tomato water behind in the food processor.
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Toss the parsley, tomatoes and mint scallion mixture then add in the quinoa, salt, lemon juice and olive oil.
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Serve the tabouleh salad with a thin drizzle of tahini sauce or leave it on the side.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
TABOULEH TIPS
- Do not crowd your food processor when chopping the herbs. Make sure to do the chopping in batches so you don't end up with watery tabouli salad.
- I encourage you to make the perfect tahini sauce with your tabouleh and keep it on the side so that everyone can help themselves.
- For meal prep, store all the chopped ingredients and cooked quinoa, as well as the sauce, separately and assemble last minute.
- Tabouli can be stored in the fridge and enjoyed for 2 days.
This looks super delicious Mahy! I’m always looking for another salad to add to my list of go to’s. And I love the swap of the regular dressing with your tahini sauce. Uh YUM!!
Thanks Mag! This tahini sauce really makes the tabouleh what it is-I urge you not to skip it! Enjoy:)
Ha, not to worry I never skimp on sauce!!
This looks so yummy and refreshing! When I studied abroad in France, it was a very hot summer and I often had tabbouleh for a snack or as a meal. This takes me right back! 🙂
Thanks Sarah, it really is super refreshing any time of the year! And I wouldn’t have connected it to France, so glad you did!:)