Its primary ingredients are finely chopped parsley, bulgur, mint, tomato, spring onion, and other herbs with lemon juice, olive oil and various seasonings, generally including black pepper and sometimes cinnamon and allspice.
In the Arab world, but particularly the Greater Syrian region, it is usually served as part of the mezze,Wright, 2001, p. 251.Arthur L. Meyer, Jon M. Vann, The Appetizer Atlas: A World of Small Bites, John Wiley and Sons, 2003, p. 353. and is served with romaine lettuce.Terry Carter, et al., Syria and Lebanon, Lonely Planet, 2004 In Iraq, the dish is considered native to Mosul, whose cuisine is tightly linked to that of Syria.http://food.sidkhullar.com/recipes/tabbouleh.html The Lebanese use more parsley than bulgur wheat in their dish.
A Turkish variation of the dish is known as kısır, while a similar Armenian dish is known as eetch. In Cyprus, where the dish was introduced by the Lebanese, it is known as tambouli."Tambouli Taboule Tabbouleh Salad Recipe". Group Recipes
Etymology
Tabbūle is a Levantine Arabic word meaning literally "little spicy". The emphatic diminutive structure faʕʕūl is common in Syrian Arabic and is related to the formal Arabic emphatic structure fuʕʕūlun (as in quddūsun "much sacred").
Wheat
In Lebanon, the wheat variety salamouni cultivated in the region around Hawran and in Mount Lebanon and Baalbek was considered (in the mid-19th century) as particularly well suited for making bulgur, a basic ingredient of tabbouleh.Nabhan, 2008, pp. 77-78.
History
To the Arabs, edible herbs known as qaḍb, formed an essential part of their diet in the Middle Ages, and dishes like tabbouleh attest to their continued popularity in Middle Eastern cuisine today.Wright, 2001, p. xxi.
Like hummus, baba ghanouj, pita and other elements of Arab cuisine, tabbouleh has become a popular "American ethnic food".Zalinksy, 2001 p. 118. Tabbouleh is also popular in Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico due to the large middle eastern populations.
The largest recorded dish of tabbouleh was created on October 24, 2009 in Beirut, Lebanon.Natacha Yazbeck, Agence France-Presse (October 25, 2009). "Salad days in Lebanon as it sets third Guinness food record". Retrieved October 26, 2009. It weighed 3557 kilograms and earned a Guinness World Record.Omar Katerji, The Daily Star (October 26, 2009). "Lebanon breaks hummus, tabbouleh Guinness record". Retrieved October 26, 2009.
Bibliography
- Basan, Ghillie (2007). The Middle Eastern Kitchen. Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0781811902, 9780781811903.
- Caplan, Patricia (1997). Food, health, and identity (Illustrated ed.). Routledge. ISBN 0415156807, 9780415156806.
- Nabhan, Gary Paul (2008). Where our food comes from: retracing Nikolay Vavilov's quest to end famine (Illustrated ed.). Island Press. ISBN 1597263990, 9781597263993.
- 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 1558321969, 9781558321960.
- Zelinsky, Wilbur (2001). The enigma of ethnicity: another American dilemma (Illustrated ed.). University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0877457506, 9780877457503.
