Bright and fresh tabouleh salad is the PERFECT side to freshen up barbecued meats- parsley, chopped tomatoes, shallots, lemon juice and olive oil- SO simple and ready to go in 10 minutes.
I’ve added some curly kale in this version for a bit of extra fibre and to add some volume to the meal. Curly kale can be quite tough, so I pick smaller, softer stems for raw dishes like these, and save the hardier stems for sautéing or stir-fries. Chop up the kale nice and fine, and I like to massage in the lemon juice and leave this salad in the fridge overnight for the kale and shallots to soften slightly.
Traditional tabouleh uses Bulgur– it’s a type of cereal found in Middle Eastern grocers. I’ve substituted with pearl barley, though quinoa works fine too. I love cooking my grains in some stock for added flavour.
The rest of the ingredients are standard and simple- chop everything as finely or coarsely as you’d prefer. I add toasted cumin seeds as well as ground cumin for depth of flavour. Add a big squeeze of lemon and top with as much EVOO as your heart desires.
Kale & Buckwheat Tabouleh Salad
Ingredients
- 60 grams pearl barley dried- you can also use quinoa
- 1 cube vegetable stock
- 4-5 stems kale large stems removed- smaller stems are fine
- 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley leaves picked
- 4 ripe tomatoes
- 2 french shallots finely chopped
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp cumin seeds optional: toast the seeds for extra flavour
- 1 lemon
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tbsp pomegranate seeds (optional)
Instructions
- Wash the pearl barley. Bring a saucepan of water to boil, add the stock cube and season with salt. Leave to simmer for 25 minutes, then drain
- Roughly chop the kale and parsley– I prefer my tabouleh roughly chopped for better texture, but chop these to your preference
- Dice the tomatoes
- Peel and finely dice the french shallots
- Combine all ingredients in a large salad bowl. Add the ground cumin & cumin seeds
- Squeeze the lemon over and drizzle the olive oil on top
- Gently toss to combine, then sprinkle the pomegranate seeds on top to garnish (optional)
Nutrition

1 Comment
Paleodebcooks
January 3, 2020 at 9:14 amPerfect!