Winter Tabbouleh

I love to discover new recipes by happenstance. Last week I was paging through Gourmet Today, a cookbook I’ve had over 10 years, and for some reason a recipe for Winter Tabbouleh caught my attention. Instead of the familiar tabbouleh composed of ripe summer tomatoes, cucumber, and parsley, this one uses produce that is abundant in winter. I tried it and loved the mix of chewy bulgur, crunchy vegetables, bright herbs, and jewel-like pops of pomegranate. This Winter Tabbouleh is tasty as well as beautiful, can be made ahead of time, and pairs well with lots of things.

The Inspiration for the Salad

Gourmet Today credits Samuel and Samantha Clark of the restaurant Moro in London for this creative salad. I love how they bring together various pale winter vegetables—fresh fennel, Belgian endive, and cauliflower—for a cast of crunchy tastes. More crunch comes from chopped walnuts and pomegranate seeds. Verdant flecks of parsley and mint flavor the salad.

The pomegranate seeds add an element that’s sweet and tart simultaneously. I like to get the seeds out of the whole pomegranate by scoring it around the outer peel and then breaking the fruit into fourths under water in a large bowl. As the seeds are freed from the white pulp inside, they sink to the bottom of the bowl. The extra pulp floats on top of the water and is easy to scoop up before draining the seeds.

The Salad Dressing

While I adhered to the tabbouleh ingredients the Clarks had provided, I changed up the dressing for the salad. The Clarks’ dressing called for cinnamon and used only pomegranate molasses to provide the tart element. After trying the tabbouleh this way, I decided to eliminate the cinnamon. Next, I substituted lemon juice for half of pomegranate molasses. The citrus brightened the flavor quite a bit.

Serve it now or later

If you wish, you can have this salad ready in about 45 minutes, chopping the vegetables and nuts, preparing the pomegranate seeds, and mincing the herbs while the bulgur cooks and cools.

But it’s also wonderful that you can prep the ingredients ahead of time and leave them at room temperature before assembling the tabbouleh.

Every forkful of this salad is humming with flavor.  The endive, fennel, and tiny cauliflower florets contribute individual levels of crunch while the walnuts and pomegranate seeds add even more.

The parsley and mint work alongside the tart dressing to enhance the bright taste of the tabbouleh.

We enjoyed this salad alongside baked chicken breasts one night and with grilled sausages another time. The instructions in the recipe encourage you to serve this salad shortly after it’s made.  That timeline allows all the flavors to be at their best and brightest.  Still, we happily ate leftovers of this salad up to two days later.

This Winter Tabbouleh has brought new notes of flavor and texture to our February dinner table.  I am happy for happenstance.

Winter Tabbouleh

Dawn Dobie

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 45 minutes mins

Course Salad

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

For tabbouleh

• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 1/4 cups coarse bulgur I used red bulgur from Bob’s Red Mill
• 1 large Belgian endive halved lengthwise, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 medium fennel bulb stalks removed, bulb cored, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 1/2 cups tiny cauliflower florets 1/2-inch in diameter or smaller
• 6 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
• 3 tablespoons walnuts coarsely chopped
• Seeds from 1 large pomegranate about 1 1/3 cups
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For dressing

• 1 garlic clove finely minced
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• pinch of freshly ground black pepper
• 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional)

Instructions

 

For tabbouleh

• Cook bulgur according to package directions. (If you have no directions, this is the technique I used: Heat 2 1/2 cups of water in a medium pot to boiling. Add the bulgur, cover the pot, and turn heat to low. Cook for 12 minutes, then fluff with fork, recover and remove from heat. Allow to sit for 20 minutes.) If needed, drain well in sieve. Transfer the bulgur to a large bowl and fluff again with a fork. Allow bulgur to come to room temperature.
• Meanwhile chop the endive, fennel, and cauliflower. If eating tabbouleh immediately, place chopped vegetables in bowl with cooled bulgur. Add chopped parsley and mint, walnuts, and pomegranate seeds. Stir gently to distribute all ingredients evenly.

For dressing

• Stir the garlic, molasses, lemon juice, water, salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Slowly drizzle in olive oil, whisking to combine. Taste. The dressing will be very tart. Add sugar, if desired.
• Toss bulgur mixture with dressing and serve.

Notes

The components for the salad can be prepared up to 4 hours before serving. If making ahead of time, cover cooked, cooled bulgur and set aside at room temperature. Place chopped vegetables in covered medium bowl at room temperature. Likewise, keep chopped walnuts and pomegranate seeds in separate containers at room temp. Right before serving, combine all the ingredients, add chopped herbs, season, and stir in dressing.

Adapted from a recipe by Samuel and Samantha Clark of Moro restaurant in London published in Gourmet Today (2009).

Keyword tabbouleh, winter salad