gluten free buckwheat tabbouleh
I love the lebanese salad tabbouleh and it works brilliantly with buckwheat rather than bulgar wheat. Buckwheat is a gluten free grain despite the name so this salad is a fabulous gluten free alternative to tabbouleh. This might seem a lot of parsley - but tabbouleh is traditionally a parsley salad with a small amount of bulgar wheat. Parsley is packed with vitamin C and antioxidants and so very good for us.
ingredients
serves 4
100g buckwheat, rinsed
200g flat leaf parsley
6 large ripe tomatoes
3 spring onions or shallots
1 lemon
handful of mint
4 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
method
prep time: 30 mins
Start by cooking the buckwheat. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, add the buckwheat and cook for 15 minutes. Drain well and add to a large salad bowl.
Finely chop the shallots or spring onions and add to a small bowl.
Halve the lemon and squeeze one half of the juice to the spring onions/shallots. This will help to get rid of any raw onion taste.
Chop the parsley finely and add to the buckwheat.
Chop the tomatoes into very small cubes and add this to the parsley and buckwheat.
Finely chop the mint and add this to the salad bowl.
Add the onions to the salad bowl.
Squeeze in the other half of the lemon and add the extra virgin olive oil.
Season generously with salt and pepper.
Stir all the ingredients together and serve.
the health boost tip
Diets that include buckwheat have been linked to lower risk of developing high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Buckwheat is also a great source of magnesium, which has been found to be low in many people’s diets. The fibre content of buckwheat is also good and 1 cup of buckwheat contains about 4.5g of fibre.
