Cauliflower Tabbouleh Recipe
This cauliflower tabbouleh recipe is a vegetable-packed twist on traditional tabbouleh salad. It’s great if you’re looking for a lower carb or lower-calorie option!
Tabbouleh salad (also spelled tabouli) is one of my favorite side dishes. It traditionally uses bulgur, a type of grain. But I recently tried cauliflower tabbouleh at Whole Foods and it was quite good! I thought it would be fun to make my own version, which is great for a low-carb side dish. While you know I love carbs, I know a lot of vegetarians are looking for lower carb veggie options. So I hope this cauliflower tabbouleh salad comes in handy!
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Cauliflower– I recommend ricing cauliflower in a food processor. You want the cauliflower to be chopped very fine. If you’re buying pre-made riced cauliflower, you’ll likely still need to blend it in a food processor. I do not recommend using frozen cauliflower rice, which is too soggy for this dish.
- Tomato– I used a large beefsteak tomato but you could use any type of tomato. Be sure to finely dice the tomato.
- Parsley– Fresh parsley is a must. This gives the salad lots of flavor. You can use curly or flat-leaf parsley.
- Mint– Mint adds an additional layer of flavor in this dish. Again, do not substitute with dried herbs.
- Lemon– Fresh lemon juice adds a bright, acidic flavor to the tabbouleh.
- Olive oil– High-quality olive oil has a light, fruity flavor which enhances the dish. Don’t use cheap olive oil for a dish like this.
- Salt– A hearty sprinkle of salt ties everything together. I like using coarse salt because it adds a little texture, but table salt is fine.
How to Make Cauliflower Tabbouleh Salad
How to Use Tabbouleh Salad
I like serving this salad with falafel, but it would also be a delicious topping for these chickpea gyros or as an addition to these chickpea bowls. This cauliflower tabbouleh is best eaten immediately, but it can be made up to a day in advance and stored in the fridge. But fair warning, cauliflower does start to have a smell after a few hours so be sure to store this salad in an airtight container in the fridge if you don’t plan to eat it right away.
If you’re looking for another healthy twist on tabbouleh, try my quinoa tabbouleh salad!
More Cauliflower Recipes
PrintCauliflower Tabbouleh Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: Food Processor
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This cauliflower tabbouleh recipe is a vegetable-packed twist on traditional tabbouleh salad. It’s great if you’re looking for a lower carb or lower-calorie option!
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower, chopped into 1” florets
- 1 large tomato, finely diced
- 1/4 cup chopped mint
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Add the cauliflower to a food processor and pulse until very fine, about the size of a grain of rice.
- Toss the cauliflower with the tomato, mint, parsley, lemon juice, and olive oil, then season with salt and black pepper.
Notes
This post was originally published June 2012. Updated July 2022.
Congrats of the 5minute plank, that’s awesome!
My proudest moment.. running 30km probably – that was pretty awesome 🙂
I’ve never had tabbouleh before but might have to now – it looks fab. And five minutes?! Much respect 🙂
My most recent proud moment was winning a highly commended at the Kent journalism awards this January.
Oh my gosh, that’s so exciting! Congrats, Eleanor!
Yum! This recipe sounds great!
Holy cow you held a plank for 5 minutes??? BEAST! In a good way of course 😉
FIRST OFF, this recipe looks BOMB. I mean, woah. Mouth is drooling right now!
Seccond off, you are a BEAAST lady! 5 minutes?! I can barely hold it for 1, but then again I do it on my elbows since I have bad wrists lol
Haha I switch from elbows to straight arms, because otherwise I get bored!!
Wow! 5 minutes…you go girl!
yay for your 5 minute plank!!
You ladies were the reason I believed it was possible! haha I loved your YouTube video on it!
Whoah, Liz! A 5-minute plank?! I can barely do a minute and a half. Very impressive!
Congrats on the plank! And the tabbouleh looks awesome – I will definitely have to try that out (though I may put the olives in it because I love them ;)).
Looks super fresh and healthy – cauliflower is perfect for this! Oh, and HUGE congrats on your plank! AWESOME! 🙂
It’s funny because I’m not a huge fan of cauliflower in general, but it’s the perfect texture for a grain substitute!!!
Alrriiight, about time we get this recipe ;D And I know you can substitute turmeric for saffron, so I’m sure you can go the other direction as well. But that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but saffron is $$$$$$$ (is that enough dollar signs?) while turmeric is $.
And CONGRATS, way to plank like a gym-beast!
Hahaha yeah, saffron won’t be making it into my cart anytime soon 😉 I do need to pick up some turmeric though! Now I’m curious about what it tastes like!