Tabbouleh

Levantine dish of parsley and bulgur

Cookbook: Tabbouleh
Media: Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh (Arabic: تبولة, romanized: tabbūla), also transcribed tabouleh, tabbouli, tabouli, or taboulah, is a Levantine salad made mostly of finely chopped parsley, with tomatoes, mint, onion, soaked uncooked bulgur, and seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and sweet pepper. Some variations add lettuce, or use semolina instead of bulgur.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

Tabbouleh is traditionally served as part of a mezze in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Arab world.^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9] Like hummus, baba ghanoush, pita bread, and other elements of Arab cuisine, tabbouleh has become a popular food in the United States.^[10]^[11]

Etymology

The Levantine Arabic tabbūle is derived from the Arabic word tābil from the Aramaic root word t-b-l, meaning "seasoning"^[12]^[13] or more literally "dip".^{[citation needed]} Use of the word in English first appeared in the 1950s.^[12]

History

Originally from the mountains of Lebanon and Syria,^[14] tabbouleh has become one of the most popular salads in the Middle East.^[15] The wheat variety salamouni^{[what language is this?]} cultivated in the Beqaa Valley region in Lebanon, was considered (in the mid-19th century) as particularly well-suited for making bulgur, a basic ingredient of tabbouleh.^[16] In Lebanon, the Lebanese National Tabbouleh Day is a yearly festivity day dedicated to Tabbouleh. Since 2001^[update], it is celebrated the first Saturday of the month of July.^[17]

Regional variations

In the Arab world, especially Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, it is usually served as part of a meze.^[18] The Syrian and the Lebanese use more parsley than bulgur wheat in their dish. A Turkish variation of the dish known as kısır,^[19] and a similar Armenian dish known as eetch use far more bulgur than parsley. Another ancient variant is called terchots.^[20] In Cyprus, where the dish was introduced by the Lebanese, it is known as tambouli.^{[what language is this?]} In the Dominican Republic, a local version introduced by Syrian and Lebanese immigrants is called Tipile.^[21] It is widely popular in Israel.^[22]^[23]^[24]

Retail sales

Several manufacturers make tabbouleh for sale in supermarkets.^[25]^[26]

Notes

^ Zubaida 2000, pp. 35, 37.
^ Roden, Claudia. A Book of Middle Eastern Food. p. 86.^{[full citation needed]}
^ Helou, Anissa. "Lebanon". In Davidson, Alan (ed.). Oxford Companion to Food.^{[full citation needed]}
^ Davidson, Alan (ed.). "tabbouleh". Oxford Companion to Food.^{[full citation needed]}
^ Madina, Maan Z. (1973). تبل. Arabic-English Dictionary of the Modern Literary Language.
^ Basan 2006, p. 125, 180.
^ Wright 2001, p. 251.
^ Peck 2010, p. 97.
^ Davis 2011, p. 58.
^ Zelinsky 2001, p. 118.
^ Schloss 2007, p. 27.
^ ^a ^b Morton 2004, p. 302.
^ Löw, Immanuel (1881). Aramæische Pflanzennamen (in German). Vienna: K. Akademie der Wissenschaften. Retrieved June 30, 2021 – via menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de.
^ Kummer, Corby (2007). "Tabbouleh". 1,001 Foods to Die For. Andrews McMeel Publishing. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-7407-7043-2.
^ Basan 2006, p. 180-181.
^ Nabhan 2008, pp. 77–78.
^ Yazbeck 2008, pp. 266–267.
^ Wright 2001, pp. 250–251 "In the Arab world, tabbouleh (tabbūla) is a salad usually made as part of the mazza table (p xx) especially in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine."
^ Basan 2006, pp. 180–181.
^ http://www.mangaloreanrecipes.com/recipes/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1346&Itemid=130 ^{[bare URL]}
^ Brown, Isabel Zakrzewski (1999). Culture and Customs of the Dominican Republic. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 56. ISBN 9780313303142.
^ Degutiene, Nida (August 18, 2015). A Taste of Israel – From classic Litvak to modern Israeli. Penguin Random House South Africa. ISBN 978-1-4323-0654-0.
^ Hobby, Jeneen (2009). Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 60. ISBN 9781414448909.
^ Edelstein, Sari (2010). Food, Cuisine, and Cultural Competency for Culinary, Hospitality, and Nutrition Professionals. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. p. 585. ISBN 9781449618117.
^ "Dry4Good Provides Healthy Ingredients For Food Manufacturers". DirectIndustry e-magazine. September 23, 2020.
^ Bules, Rachel (October 17, 2018). "If you haven't been to Trader Joe's yet, let me tell you why you're wrong". The Lantern.

References

Basan, Ghillie (2006). Middle Eastern Kitchen. Hippocrene Books. ISBN 978-0-7818-1190-3.
Davis, Craig S. (March 10, 2011). The Middle East For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-05393-5.
Morton, Mark (2004). Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities (2nd ed.). Insomniac Press. p. 302. ISBN 978-1-894663-66-3. tabbouleh dictionary meaning.
Nabhan, Gary Paul (2008). Where our food comes from: retracing Nikolay Vavilov's quest to end famine (Illustrated ed.). Island Press. ISBN 978-1-59726-399-3.
Peck, Malcolm C. (April 12, 2010). The A to Z of the Gulf Arab States. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-1-4617-3190-0.
Schloss, Andrew (November 1, 2007). Almost from Scratch: 600 Recipes for the New Convenience Cuisine. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-9589-2.
Wright, Clifford A. (2001). Mediterranean vegetables: a cook's ABC of vegetables and their preparation in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, and north Africa with more than 200 authentic recipes for the home cook (Illustrated ed.). Harvard Common Press. ISBN 978-1-55832-196-0.
Yazbeck, Cherine (December 2008). A Complete Insiders Guide to Lebanon. Souk el Tayeb Press. pp. 266–267. ISBN 9789953013022.
Zelinsky, Wilbur (2001). The enigma of ethnicity: another American dilemma (Illustrated ed.). University of Iowa Press. ISBN 978-0-87745-750-3.
Zubaida, Sami (2000). "National, Communal and Global Dimensions in Middle Eastern Food Cultures". In Zubaida, Sami; Tapper, Richard (eds.). A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East. London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks. pp. 35, 37. ISBN 1-86064-603-4.