Taboulleh (also spelled tabouli, tabouleh, and tabbouli) is a classic Middle Eastern salad that generally contains chopped vegetables, herbs, and a liberal amount of olive oil. It’s an extremely flavorful dish, and I love how there’s plenty of room to play with the ingredients.
While traditional taboulleh is made with bulghur wheat, I enjoy experimenting with different gluten-free grains and seeds as the base. I’ve made it with amaranth for the blog before; this time, I used millet.
Millet has a reputation for being extremely nutritious, digestible, and hypoallergenic. It is easy to cook up for this recipe, and you’ll even have a little left over to try another way (I love it warm, as a breakfast “cereal”). If you don’t want to give it a go with the millet, I would try it with quinoa.
I’ve been crazy over all the specialty citrus this winter, and here I’ve used Cara Cara oranges (sold by Sunkist). These aren’t organic, but their flesh is really pretty and delicious. If you can’t find them, substitute blood oranges or your favorite oranges: organic is always preferable.
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Millet Taboulleh with Oranges and Green Olives
Ingredients
- * 1 cup millet
- * 3 cups water
- * 3 cups minced parsley I used curly, but flat is fine, too
- * 4 medium tomatoes diced (about 1 cup)
- * 4 Cara Cara or blood oranges peeled with a sharp knife so there is no pith, then diced
- * 2 cup diced cucumber
- * 2 cup diced pitted green olives I used Divina Organics brand
- * 2 large shallots peeled and minced
- * 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- * 1/2 cup olive oil plus 2 tablespoons
Instructions
- 1. Rinse millet in a fine mesh strainer. Add to medium pot on the stove with the water and bring to a boil.
- 2. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 30 minutes until water is absorbed. Remove from heat and allow to rest for 10 minutes, covered, then uncover and allow to cool to room temperature. Fluff with a fork.
- 3. Combine 2 cups of the cooked millet (save the rest for another use) with the remainder of the ingredients and 1/2 cup of the olive oil. Mix well and place in the refrigerator for several hours for the flavors to meld.
- 4. Allow taboulleh to come to room temperature, then drizzle with the final two tablespoons of olive oil and serve.
