Grain-free TABOULI Salad

For this grain-free take on a Lebanese tabouli salad I replaced the traditional bulgar with cauliflower rice, creating a light, veggie-packed salad that IMO goes best with a healthy dose of hummus. I also nixed the mint that is usually in a tabouli salad - because mint just isn’t my jam. But, more about what this salad is - it is the perfect warm-weather salad that is easy to prep ahead of time and bring to a party, or to have meal-prepped for a couple days for lunches. I am a sucker for Mediterranean food and this is one of those dishes I crave all the time in the spring and summer months.

I often make small tweaks to what ingredients I choose to toss in this salad, but the base is always riced cauliflower, parsley, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers with a lemon vinaigrette.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups cauliflower rice (you can make your own by throwing cauliflower florets in a food processor, or buying the pre-riced stuff. I do not recommend the frozen riced cauliflower, as the texture for this salad will not come out the same)

  • ½ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

  • ½ cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

  • ½ cup cucumbers, chopped

  • ¼ cup red onions, chopped

  • ¼ cup feta cheese, crumbed

  • ¼ cup pine nuts, crumbed

For the dressing:

  • ¼ cup olive oil

  • 2 tbsp lemon juice

  • 1 tsp raw honey

  • ½ tsp ground sumac

  • Sea salt

  • Ground pepper

Instructions:

Rice your cauliflower and chop your veggies. Whisk all the ingredients for the dressing together in a mixing bowl. Toss cauliflower rice, parsley, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese and pine nuts with the dressing. Throw the salad in the fridge for 1-2 hours to let the cauliflower rice soak in the dressing. The salad will be good in the fridge for about 3-4 days, making it the perfect meal-prepped weekday lunch.

I recommend serving the salad with hummus and my hummus-crusted salmon (or take the same recipe and make some hummus-crusted chicken, like I did here).