4
Aug
Last Saturday, Yotam Ottolenghi published a recipe for tabbuleh in his Guardian column, the new vegetarian, saying there is a right way and a wrong way to make tabbuleh, which is true. For far too long tabbuleh has been made the wrong way both in Europe and in America. But as much as I like Yotam’s food, his version of tabbuleh still has too much burghul in it. Of course, there are variations. Some families use more burghul than others, but a typical Lebanese tabbuleh (one of the very few national dishes we have) has very little burghul indeed, normally 5% of the amount of tomatoes and less than 10% the amount of parsley. Here is what a typical tabbuleh from the Lebanese mountains looks like. This one was made by my mother when we were shooting the pictures for my Lebanese cookbook, fifteen years ago now which explains why the picture looks a little dated.
But more interesting, at least for me, is white tabbuleh. I first came across the recipe for it when I was researching my Lebanese cookbook. I found it in a book on Lebanese cooking by Ibrahim Mouzannar, who happened to be related to a friend of mine. I was intrigued although not enough to want to find out more, not until a couple of years ago that is, when I wrote Modern Mezze and decided to include Mouzannar’s recipe for white tabbuleh. By then, he had died and no one was able to tell me where his white tabbuleh came from: if it was a regional variation, a seasonal one, or his own creation. I asked his daughter and his brother but neither could help. And to think that I could have easily met him and asked him myself. In any case, it is a great salad and it is called white because the parsley is replaced with cabbage. Otherwise, the remaining ingredients are the same, although the ratios are different.
And the method is fairly similar. The cabbage is thinly shredded, the mint and onion finely chopped and the tomatoes diced except that I prefer to use quartered cherry tomatoes because they look prettier with the cabbage.
The spices are different though. Whereas regular tabbuleh is seasoned with cinnamon and allspice, the white version is seasoned with paprika only. I didn’t like the idea of paprika and decided to use Aleppo pepper instead, which gives the salad a nice kick. The lemon juice and olive oil are the same and here is the final result, a scrumptious and supremely healthy salad that is almost as good a day later.
I am still trying to find out more about this white tabbuleh. So, please write to me or leave a comment if you know anything about it. Until then, here are the recipes for both ‘green’ and white tabbuleh. Each recipe serves 4 to 6, depending on the appetite.
White Tabbulé (Tabbuleh Baidah)
100 g fine burghul
1 pointed organic white cabbage, weighing about 500 g, outer damaged leaves discarded, shredded very fine
100 g spring onions, trimmed, thinly sliced
200 g fresh mint, leaves only, chopped medium fine
400 g firm ripe cherry tomatoes, quartered
juice of 1 lemon, or to taste
100 ml extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper
sea salt
1. Rinse the burghul under cold water. Drain and set aside to let it fluff up — stir the burghul with a fork every now and then to separate the grains.
2. Put the cabbage, onion, mint and tomatoes in a large bowl. Add the burghul, lemon juice and oil. Season with the Aleppo pepper and salt to taste. Mix well. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve immediately.
© Anissa Helou — from Modern Mezze
Tabbuleh
30 g fine burghul
600 g firm ripe tomatoes, diced into small cubes
50 g spring onions, trimmed and very thinly sliced
400 g flat-leaf parsley, most of the stalk discarded, very finely chopped
70 g mint, leaves only, very finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice (or Lebanese seven-spice mixture)
1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
salt to taste
juice of 1 lemon, or to taste
150 ml extra virgin olive oil
4 gem lettuce, washed and quartered
1. Rinse the burghul in several changes of cold water. Drain well and put in a bowl. Stir it with a fork every now and then to help fluff it up.
2. Put the diced tomatoes in a bowl and set aside while you prepare the onion and herbs. A word of warning: do not chop the herbs with a mezzaluna. This will only bruise them. Instead, use a razor sharp knife and gather as much as you can handle in a bunch and slice them very thin to end up with nice, crisp thin strips.
3. Drain the tomatoes of their juice and put in a large bowl. Add the spring onion and herbs. Sprinkle the burghul all over. Season with the cinnamon, allspice and pepper. Add salt to taste. Add the lemon juice and olive oil and mix well. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve immediately with the quartered gem lettuce.
© Anissa Helou — from Modern Mezze or Lebanese Cuisine
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There is 11 comments on this post
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August 4, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Thanks for the tip about proportions in Tabouleh. I think I’ve been adding too much bulgar in the past. In France they do it with couscous don’t they?
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August 4, 2009 at 7:26 pm
they do, or at least they did for a very long time. perhaps they don’t anymore. will check next time i am in paris.
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August 5, 2009 at 2:30 am
Same here – I make tabbouleh quite often, but always with too much bulgur!! I’ll try to get it (more) right next time..
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August 5, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Keep telling them, Anissa. I’ve been trying for decades to convince Americans that tabbuleh is a way of eating parsley, not a way of eating wheat.
That white tabbuleh looks great, I’ll have to try it.
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August 5, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Wow! I thought I had read Ibrahim Mouzannar’s book a million times and I don’t even remember this tabbooleh. I wonder if people will pick up on it and make it famous? Thanks for the demo. I am enjoying your book on street food at the moment. Lucky you! it sounds so much fun! can’t wait to read more!
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August 6, 2009 at 7:23 am
you must charles. it is totally delicious. my new favourite salad. as for the bughul in tabbuleh, t’s too sad. not sure why people don’t listen to those who know better, at the risk of sounding pedantic! see you in september. let me know if you’re in london before or after oxford and we’ll meet up.
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August 6, 2009 at 7:24 am
thanks joumana. glad you are enjoying the book. i hope whoever makes white tabbuleh famous, doesn’t bastardise it. here i go again. do i sound pedantic? hope not. btw, liked your version of bassbussa.
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August 6, 2009 at 5:21 pm
great recipes, both of them. one of my favourite cookbooks (and the one i’ve had the longest) is A Lebanese Harvest by Nouhad Boulos-Guillaume. I’ve always used the recipe from that book, and only recently realised one flaw: ‘soak the bulgur wheat for 20 minutes’. The book has a whole page on preparing bulgur wheat and is very clear from that soaking doesn’t mean you should let the bulgur wheat sit in the water – but being a man i could never be bothered reading the cross references! By leaving the bulgur wheat in the water it is almost impossible to get any flavour back into it, no matter how much cinnamon, cayenne or paprika you add to your salad! So folks, follow the above instructions and all will be well!
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July 20, 2011 at 5:14 am
Hi Anissa, both my husband and I are Lebanese and agree wholeheartedly about the ratio debate. I made the white tabbuleh last night and it was delicious. Can i ask whether the quantity for the mint of 200g is correct. I used a 20g bag and found it sufficient. thanks
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July 20, 2011 at 5:42 am
The weight is for the bunch which means a lot less when leaves only but not as little as 20 g but it’s a question of taste. Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
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November 1, 2021 at 3:36 pm
Anissa, thank you for sharing this amazing recipe! This was my first time making this Middle Eastern veggie salad, and I was a little nervous. I followed your recipe completely, except I used paprika and extra lemon. I must say that the dish was wonderful.