You will love how fresh, tasty and healthy this quinoa tabbouleh recipe is! Traditionally made with bulgur, we switched the grains to make this version of tabbouleh gluten-free and it’s notable.

This Mediterranean side dish tastes fresh and goes well with hummus, falafel, meat and if you’re not dairy-free – cheese.

What Is Tabbouleh

Basically, it’s a popular salad from the Eastern Mediterranean. It’s often served as part of a mezze with other satisfying things including olives, cheeses, vegetables and legumes.

Tabbouleh is made with bulgur and microscopically thinly chopped onions, parsley, tomatoes and mint. Then you add some olive oil and lots of lemon juice and it’s magical.

So simple and incredibly healthy.

Gluten-Free Tabbouleh

We tweaked the original recipe a bit, to make the tabbouleh gluten-free and used quinoa in place of bulgur. We also added arugula, because we had a lot of it and love arugula.

Also, some lemon zest and we think it’s the secret to this recipe. We had tabbouleh like that at a restaurant here in town and it was just wonderful, so special, notable flavor. And we're not even a fan of lemon. You know how people put lemon juice on their fish? Not us. We like our fish fishy. We like our garlic garlicky. Sue us. Or don’t because it’s expensive and we need that money for other things. Like living or starting a garden where you can plant and harvest the ingredients for this tabbouleh salad.

Quinoa Tabbouleh Ingredients

We're gonna do it like 007 aka James Bond here:

Quinoa. Cooked quinoa.
Parsley. Chopped parsley.
Onion. Red onion.
Lemon. Zest of Lemon. And juice.
Tomato. Chopped tomato.
Arugula. Chopped arugula.
Olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil.
Salt and pepper. To taste salt and pepper.

You have to picture each ingredient in a suit and say the words out loud.

Did you do it? You feel cool and smooth like a seal, right? Golden eyeeeeee. The rest of the lyrics go tadadadaadada, we know that for sure. But was it golden eye or golden night? Probably golden night, who needs a golden eye? Can’t sell it, can’t see anything with it…

How it comes together

There’s not much to explain here. You cook the quinoa, let it cool off. In the meantime chop parsley thinly as if it’s your life’s purpose.

As you can see – we couldn’t do that. No idea why that parsley always ends up so huge. Satisfying nevertheless. Then comes tomato, some onion and let’s not forget a ton of lemon juice. And pepper.

Tada.

You’ve got a satisfying and refreshing quinoa tabbouleh salad that you can serve with ANYTHING. Hummus, falafels, fish, meat – your choice.

Does Quinoa Tabbouleh Store Well?

This would not store well for a long time in the fridge, because tomatoes. So serve immediately or in 1-2 hours.

Make Ahead Option

However! You can make most of this salad ahead by cooking the quinoa, thinly chopping parsley, arugula and onion. You can even zest the lemon. Place that into an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days and add the rest of the ingredients when it’s time to eat.

Quinoa tabbouleh