Tricolour quinoa tabbouleh is a great Christmas dish as the predominant colours are green and red. Plus in summer, parsley and mint are in abundance.
Traditional tabbouleh is usually made with bulgar wheat but quinoa provides more protein, amino acids and minerals. It is also GLUTEN-FREE as it isn’t actually a grain!
Tabbouleh is also very versatile, you can really adjust most of the ingredients according to preference. This recipe below is a simple, more traditional dish, however, you can add cucumber, seeded and finely diced, green or red pepper, seeded and diced, garlic, more quinoa if you prefer to bulk it out. If you don’t have spring onions, you could substitute finely diced red onion.
The dish is great served as part of a vegetarian banquet, or an accompaniment to roast meats, or in wraps etc.
Ingredients
1 cup tricolour quinoa
4 medium tomatoes (ripe but firm)
2 -3 spring onions
1 large bunch parsley
1/2 bunch mint
1 tsp ground all spice
3-4 tblsp lemon juice
120ml good olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Rinse the quinoa and drain. Soak 1 cup of quinoa in a medium saucepan with 2 cups of water for 15 mins, then bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 15 mins or until the water is absorbed. Remove from the heat and let stand for 10 mins. Fluff with a fork and allow to cool.
Cut the tomatoes into quarters and remove the pulp and seeds (you can save them to add to a tomato sauce for pizzas later on). Then cut each quarter into strips and then 0.5cm dice. Finely slice the spring onions and add to the bowl with the tomatoes.
Take a few stalks of parsley and pack them together tightly. Using a very sharp knife, trim off the end of the stalks, then chop the remaining stems and leaves as finely as possible and no wider than 1mm. Add the parsley to the bowl.
Pick the mint leaves, pack a few together tightly, chop as finely as the parsley and add to the bowl. Finally stir in the allspice, lemon juice to taste, olive oil, salt and pepper. Taste, adjust the seasoning and serve at room temperature.