Couscous Tabbouleh

I've always made tabbouleh salad with cracked bulgur wheat, which is delicious but it takes quite a bit of time because you have to soak the grain for several hours. This recipe from the July '09 issue of Woman's Day uses couscous, which cuts back dramatically on the preparation time. And it tastes great, too!

You may be asking: Ummm, what's tabbouleh? Pronounced "tuh-boo-lee," it's basically a Middle Eastern pasta salad.

I served this with the Armenian Beef Kebabs. An excellent pairing!

I tweaked the recipe a little bit because I didn't have any fresh mint on hand. Here's my version.


Couscous Tabbouleh
1 cup water
3⁄4 cup whole-wheat couscous
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 large seedless cucumber, chopped
4 scallions, chopped
2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
3 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. olive oil
1⁄4 tsp. salt

Heat water in small saucepan to a boil. Stir in couscous, cover with lid and remove from the heat. Allow couscous to soak up water for several minutes. Once water is absorbed, fluff couscous with fork, then let cool.

Once cool, toss with remaining tabbouleh ingredients in a large bowl.

Quick Start with MSPI Mama: This is one of my Quick Start recipes.