Kale Tabbouleh from the Pantry
No kale was composted in the making of this recipe. ‘Cause Kale Tabbouleh Salad is a tasty and fun variation on the parsley-based original. 
Alright…. Let’s start with a trick question. How do you know it’s fall? Answer–by the CSA (or garden) produce covering every square inch of your refrigerator.
And you thought it was pumpkin recipes and fall colors.
Kale Tabbouleh
Which is how I set out to make a few meals with no, zero, nada extras from the grocery store. And I figured that tabbouleh was a great place to start since I was testing Middle Eastern recipes (for Sunday’s post–stay tuned!).
Now, in case you aren’t familiar with the dish, tabbouleh is “a salad of fine-ground bulgur, parsley, tomatoes, green onions, mint, olive oil, and lemon juice” (per Dictionary.com). In my new version, bulgur became couscous, lemon turned into lime and parsley became kale.
No problem.
Mmmm!
Finally, in one final burst of sanity, I took an efficiency shortcut. Despite entreaties all over the internet of nooo, don’t crush your kale in the food processor, I chopped my kale in the food processor.
Still good.
Served!
In the end the kale tabbouleh was delicious and well received (except by my youngest who hates everything). No greenhouse gasses were emitted, or time wasted in a grocery run.
Even better, now there is time to hit the backyard for the raspberry harvest and room to store it.
And you thought I was going to take a nap…
Happy Fall!
- • ⅔ cup fine bulgur or couscous or quinoa
- • 5-6 cups chopped kale leaves (about 1 large bunch) or parsley
- • 2 large ripe tomatoes, diced (about 2 cups)
- • 1 finely chopped red onion or shallot or bunch of green onions
- • 1/4 cup chopped mint leaves or parsley (or not)
- • 1 medium cucumber or ½ English cucumber (if you have it)
- • 1/4 cup lime or lemon juice
- • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- • 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- • ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Prepare bulgur, couscous or quinoa according to package directions. Cool, then toss with remaining salad ingredients.
- Whisk together dressing ingredients, then toss with salad.
So I made this recipe for my daughter who like you is also a healthy, fit mama and just graciously gifted me another grandbaby to love. Your recipe was everything she and SIL enjoy and my garden has been pumping out delicious Red Russian Kale. Perfect, right? I went with the lemon juice, had to sub in some chopped red pepper because I only had one ripe red tomato, used quinoa to be a good protein source for them and thought your dressing was so perfectly simple and balanced that they’d love it. She enjoyed a bowl of it (SIL is on shift) and we were discussing it when the ‘needle scratch’ moment happened and I said it had mint in it. Oh no…she is breastfeeding and can’t have mint! I was mortified to make such a mistake but…I nursed two babies and never knew about mint being detrimental to milk supply so it wasn’t like I was trying to sabotage her. (But even worse, we’d actually discussed the taboo of mint just a few weeks ago and i *forgot*…old age horrors.) I printed your recipe for her and know even though she thought it was delicious but can’t eat it now, it will be something going into their regular rotation once sweet New Baby is grown and mint is ‘allowed’ again. I thought it tasted AHmazing.
You can leave out the mint and use parsley instead. I’ve even made it with kale as my only “green” if that’s what I had. Congrats on the new grandbaby!
I love that you ignored everyone who said don’t use the food processor! You are such a renegade! 🙂
Ah sometimes it’s innovate or die 😉 David!
This is a great variation.
I can’t believe all those years I composted my kale!
Hi Inger, tabbouleh is one of my favorite salad!! this looks delicious !!
Thanks Gloria!