Quick tabbouleh salad with grilled halloumi
As usual, Britain’s ridiculous weather has totally ruined my plans. I was going to post this light recipe to celebrate the beginning of spring, but it’s now been snowing for about 18 hours and doesn’t show any signs of stopping yet. Will somebody please inform the weather that it’s late March?
Anyway, those of you who follow me on Facebook may have gathered that it was my birthday on Wednesday, and after eating copious amounts of birthday cake over the last few days, a light meal like this is just what I fancy. Tabbouleh is a Middle Eastern bulgur wheat salad, and it’s delicious. There are lots of different ingredients that you could include, but since I’m slightly lazy at the best of times (especially after eating a brick-sized slab of cake in one sitting), I decided to make a simplified version for those days when you want something quick and easy. If you want to make a more traditional version, you can spruce up this quick tabbouleh with cucumbers, mint, onion and / or garlic.
But even without these additions, this salad was gorgeous. I can’t stress enough how weird I find it that I’ve been posting so many salad-type recipes lately. This is one of my favourites yet. I just can’t get enough of these fresh, simple flavours.
I served my tabbouleh alongside some grilled halloumi cheese, because what would an Amuse Your Bouche recipe be without a bit of cheese? The tabbouleh itself is vegan, however.
Bulgur wheat is one of my favourite grains to cook with – it absorbs a huge amount of flavour with very little effort, so it’s perfect for dishes like this. To make this tabbouleh, just soak it in some stock, and then add EVOO and lemon juice. Easy as pie.
(oh great, now I want pie)
Next time I make this I might be tempted to double the batch. It already makes at least two generous servings, but it’s so good that I might make a mega batch that lasts all week. Sometimes I get sick of having the same leftovers too many days in a row, but I don’t think that would happen with this.
- 100g bulgur wheat
- 1 vegetable stock cube
- ~400ml hot water
- 4tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 large tomato, diced
- 2tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Black pepper
- Salt
- Halloumi cheese, grilled, to serve (optional)
- Crumble the stock cube over the bulgur wheat in a large bowl, and add ~250ml hot water. Mix well, cover the bowl, and leave to sit. After 5 minutes, stir again and taste. If the bulghur wheat isn’t quite soft enough yet, you’ll need to add a little more hot water – I added another 150ml. Mix well, and again, cover and leave to sit.
- When the bulghur wheat is soft and has cooled, add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Leave in the fridge until needed, and serve slightly chilled (I recommend removing it from the fridge half an hour before serving).
Oh yum. Tabbouleh is a favourite of mine when the weather turns warm (which it’s trying to do in Southern Ontario) and we love Halloumi. Thanks for sharing. That would be an ideal warm weather meal.
Hello from across the pond. What is Halloumi??
Hi Terese. Halloumi is a Cypriot cheese that you can slice and grill without it melting :) It’s widely available in the UK, I guess you might need to hunt a bit harder in the US but you should definitely try to find it, it’s really delicious!
This looks really good. great pic too.
mmmm this looks incredible! another one of yours to add to my must make list!
I am soo sick of winter I can’t even take it! Looks like a beautiful salad. Can’t wait to try :)
Happy Blogging!
Happy Valley Chow
Just had amazing tabbouleh while out for dinner and was googling recipes which brought me to your lovely site! I’m in LOVE with halloumi (seriously… deeply in love) so I can’t wait to make tabbouleh and pair with with some delicious golden fried halloumi (or “squeaky cheese” as our waiter once called it my friends daughter!)
can’t wait to check out more of your blog!
You must, the halloumi and tabbouleh go so well together! :) And thanks, I hope you’ll come by again!
Your blog post about halloumi-pineapple pancakes finally inspired me to try halloumi for the first time the other day. I was like, halloumi and pineapple? Sounds yummy! Pancakes sounded too complicated though, so I decided on kabobs. And then my kabobs fell apart. So I basically just ate a gigantic pile of grilled pineapple and halloumi — and god was it good! Not pretty, but very, very good. So thanks for introducing me to my new favorite cheese! :D
Ooh sounds great! Who cares if it wasn’t pretty :) I’m so glad you tried halloumi, it’s amazing isn’t it!