Tabbouleh is a classic Middle Eastern salad traditionally made with bulgar (wheat!), tomatoes, finely chopped parsley, mint, onion, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt. There are, of course, many variations on that theme, including versions that sub couscous (more wheat!) for the bulgar, as well as gluten-free versions that use quinoa in place of bulgar. For our version, we’ve gone with brown rice that we ground in a food processor to give a shape and texture closer to what you’d expect if you made this dish with bulgar.
Tabbouleh
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients
1/3 cup brown rice
2/3 cup water
1 bunch parsley, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
2 tbsp chopped mint
1/4 cup grape tomatoes, diced small
1/2 shallot, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced (about 2 tbsp)
Salt and pepper to taste
Steps
1. Grind the brown rice in a food processor until you have small pieces. This takes a few minutes. Use a fine mesh strainer to remove any “rice powder” and retain only the broken rice grains.
2. Add to a saucepan with 2/3 cup of water, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for about 35 minutes. Remove from the heat, fluff the rice, then spread out (such as on a cookie sheet) to cool.
3. Combine the cooked rice with all remaining ingredients in a bowl. Toss to mix well. Refrigerate and serve cool.
Degrees of Free-dom
This recipe is: gluten-free/wheat-free, dairy/lactose/casein-free, fish-free, shellfish-free, peanut-free, tree-nut-free, soy-free, vegetarian, vegan.
Enjoy!
–Pete and Kelli
I love the idea of grinding the rice! I usually use quinoa, but I think the rice will be so much better.
Funny…I use almost the same recipe but make it with quinoa instead! I just made a batch this past week. I love it! Just wish I could get my 10 year old Celiac son to love it as much as I do. Fortunately, tastes “mature” over time!!
Oh wow! I love Tabbouleh, and I love brown rice! This is absolutely wonderful… I am so grateful! Thank you!!!
I usually use millet for my Tabbouleh, it has more of the same mouth feel as the #1 ground bulgur.
I made this and it was delicious!—even though I had to modify the recipe some and leave out the tomatoes due to intolerance. I couldn’t get the ground brown rice to be anything more than a sticky lump of white rice after it was cooked but I only had an Instant Pot to cook it in as my kitchen is being remodeled. So I then tried some minute brown rice packaged in the individual serving size cups. I used the food processor to chop the rice and then microwaved it for a little longer than the package recommendations (I used several cups at a time). I fluffed it and cooled it and It worked great! I don’t care to use pre-packaged anything and may not have tried this had it not been a necessity at the time but I’m glad I did. This was the best Tabbouleh I’ve ever had. Could be because it’s the only gluten free version I’ve ever had and so it didn’t make me feel ill after eating it—but I think not. I believe it was just a great recipe. Thanks!