Tabbouleh
 | |
| Type | Salad |
|---|---|
| Course | Appetizer |
| Place of origin | Lebanon and Syria |
| Region or state | Eastern Mediterranean |
| Serving temperature | Cold |
| Main ingredients | Parsley, tomato, bulgur, onion, olive oil, lemon juice, salt |
| Variations | Pomegranate seeds instead of tomato |
Tabbouleh (Arabic: تَبّولَة, romanized: tabbūla), also transcribed tabouleh, tabbouli, tabouli, or taboulah, is a Levantine salad of finely chopped parsley, bulgur, tomato, mint, and onion, seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and sometimes sweet pepper. Some variations add lettuce, or use semolina instead of bulgur.
Tabbouleh is traditionally served as part of a mezze in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Arab world. Like hummus, baba ghanoush, pita bread, and other elements of Arab cuisine, tabbouleh has become a popular food in the United States.
Etymology
The Levantine Arabic tabbūle is derived from the Arabic word tābil from the Aramaic root word t-b-l 'seasoning' or more literally "dip".[citation needed] Use of the word in English first appeared in the 1950s.
History
Originally from the mountains of Lebanon and Syria, tabbouleh has become one of the most popular salads in the Middle East. The salamouni wheat variety cultivated in the Beqaa Valley is considered as particularly well-suited for making bulgur, a basic ingredient of tabbouleh. In Lebanon, the Lebanese National Tabbouleh Day is a yearly festivity day dedicated to Tabbouleh. Since 2001[update], it is celebrated the first Saturday of the month of July.
Tabbouleh made by Syrian Jews uses bulgur as the main ingredient, rather than parsley, this variety was introduced by them to Israel and into the US in the 1970s.
Regional variations
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In the Arab world, especially Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, it is usually served as part of a meze. The Syrian and the Lebanese use more parsley than bulgur wheat in their dish. A Turkish variation of the dish known as kısır, and a similar Armenian dish known as eetch use far more bulgur than parsley. Another ancient variant is called terchots. In the Dominican Republic, a local version introduced by Syrian and Lebanese immigrants is called Tipile.
Traditional Levantine tabbouleh has more herbs (mainly parsley) than bulgur, whereas western adaptations contain more bulgur than parsley. The bulgur-heavy variety is widely popular in Israel. Michael Solomonov described Palestinian-made tabbouleh as "80 percent parsley."
Retail sales
Several manufacturers make tabbouleh for sale in supermarkets.
See also
Notes
- 1 2 3 4 Marks, Gil (November 17, 2010). "Tabbouleh". Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. HMH. ISBN 978-0-544-18631-6. Retrieved January 26, 2026.
- ↑ Zubaida 2000, pp. 35, 37.
- ↑ Roden, Claudia. A Book of Middle Eastern Food. p. 86.[full citation needed]
- ↑ Helou, Anissa. "Lebanon". In Davidson, Alan (ed.). Oxford Companion to Food.[full citation needed]
- ↑ Davidson, Alan (ed.). "tabbouleh". Oxford Companion to Food.[full citation needed]
- ↑ Madina, Maan Z. (1973). تبل. Arabic-English Dictionary of the Modern Literary Language.
- ↑ Basan 2006, p. 125, 180.
- ↑ Wright 2001, p. 251.
- ↑ Peck 2010, p. 97.
- ↑ Davis 2011, p. 58.
- ↑ Zelinsky 2001, p. 118.
- ↑ Schloss 2007, p. 27.
- 1 2 Morton 2004, p. 302.
- ↑ Löw, Immanuel (1881). Aramæische Pflanzennamen (in German). Vienna: K. Akademie der Wissenschaften. Retrieved June 30, 2021 – via menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de.
- ↑ Kummer, Corby (2007). "Tabbouleh". 1,001 Foods to Die For. Andrews McMeel Publishing. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-7407-7043-2.
- ↑ Basan 2006, p. 180-181.
- ↑ Nabhan 2008, pp. 77–78.
- ↑ Yazbeck 2008, pp. 266–267.
- ↑ Wright 2001, pp. 250–251 "In the Arab world, tabbouleh (tabbūla) is a salad usually made as part of the mazza table (p xx) especially in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine."
- ↑ Basan 2006, pp. 180–181.
- ↑ "Parsley - Ajmooda (hindi) - Bagdunis (arabic)".
- ↑ Brown, Isabel Zakrzewski (1999). Culture and Customs of the Dominican Republic. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 56. ISBN 9780313303142.
- ↑ Helou, Anissa; Slater, Nigel; Harris, Sam; Thompson, David; David, Elizabeth (August 6, 2014). "20 best summer salad recipes: part 3". The Guardian. Retrieved January 26, 2026.
- ↑ Cloake, Felicity (July 17, 2013). "How to make the perfect tabbouleh". The Guardian. Retrieved January 26, 2026.
- ↑ Degutiene, Nida (August 18, 2015). A Taste of Israel – From classic Litvak to modern Israeli. Penguin Random House South Africa. ISBN 978-1-4323-0654-0.
- ↑ Hobby, Jeneen (2009). Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 60. ISBN 9781414448909.
- ↑ Edelstein, Sari (2010). Food, Cuisine, and Cultural Competency for Culinary, Hospitality, and Nutrition Professionals. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. p. 585. ISBN 9781449618117.
- ↑ Solomonov, Michael; Cook (Restaurateur), Steven (2015). Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-544-37328-0. Retrieved January 26, 2026.
- ↑ "Dry4Good Provides Healthy Ingredients For Food Manufacturers". DirectIndustry e-magazine. September 23, 2020.
- ↑ Bules, Rachel (October 17, 2018). "If you haven't been to Trader Joe's yet, let me tell you why you're wrong". The Lantern.
References
- Basan, Ghillie (2006). Middle Eastern Kitchen. Hippocrene Books. ISBN 978-0-7818-1190-3.
- Davis, Craig S. (March 10, 2011). The Middle East For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-05393-5.
- Morton, Mark (2004). Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities (2nd ed.). Insomniac Press. p. 302. ISBN 978-1-894663-66-3.
tabbouleh dictionary meaning.
- Nabhan, Gary Paul (2008). Where our food comes from: retracing Nikolay Vavilov's quest to end famine (Illustrated ed.). Island Press. ISBN 978-1-59726-399-3.
- Peck, Malcolm C. (April 12, 2010). The A to Z of the Gulf Arab States. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-1-4617-3190-0.
- Schloss, Andrew (November 1, 2007). Almost from Scratch: 600 Recipes for the New Convenience Cuisine. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-9589-2.
- Wright, Clifford A. (2001). Mediterranean vegetables: a cook's ABC of vegetables and their preparation in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, and north Africa with more than 200 authentic recipes for the home cook (Illustrated ed.). Harvard Common Press. ISBN 978-1-55832-196-0.
- Yazbeck, Cherine (December 2008). A Complete Insiders Guide to Lebanon. Souk el Tayeb Press. pp. 266–267. ISBN 9789953013022.
- Zelinsky, Wilbur (2001). The enigma of ethnicity: another American dilemma (Illustrated ed.). University of Iowa Press. ISBN 978-0-87745-750-3.
- Zubaida, Sami (2000). "National, Communal and Global Dimensions in Middle Eastern Food Cultures". In Zubaida, Sami; Tapper, Richard (eds.). A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East. London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks. pp. 35, 37. ISBN 1-86064-603-4.
Further reading
- Caplan, Patricia (1997). Food, health, and identity (Illustrated ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-15680-6.
- Positive Lebanon. Tamyras. 2014. ISBN 978-2360860661.
