Delicious, easy vegan tabouli salad with marinated chickpeas that is the perfect light lunch! We serve this often as a side dish for grilled chicken or baked tofu, or take it to summer potlucks for a yummy vegan side dish.
I. Love. Summer.
I especially LOVE summer-feeling food. Grilled meat with fresh or raw side dishes, that great mix of healthy and decadent, salads so fresh and crisp that they somehow quench your thirst, you know?
This tabouli is one of those salads for our family, and I can't get enough. My mom used to make picnics of hummus and tabouli and pita long before those things were cool, and bring them to the pool late swim practices in the summer. She made both with a heavy hand of lemon, one of my favorite flavors for dishes like this.
This version of tabouli is a teensy bit jazzed up with marinating the chick peas, but that's super hands off and can be done way in advance - the longer in advance the better, actually. The garbanzos end up creamy but still with texture and so much flavor from the lemon juice, garlic, and crushed red pepper. I honestly can't even.
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Marinated Chickpeas Ingredients
First! Marinate the chick peas. Drain a can of garbanzo beans and gather up olive oil, lemon, salt, and crushed red pepper. Easy!
Pour all of the ingredients into a bowl, and stir to combine.
Stir, taste, salt? Probably salt, depends on your beans. Let the beans sit in the fridge or on the countertop for at least 30 minutes, but preferably much longer. These marinated chickpeas are delicious on just about anything, including scooped in the center of homemade hummus for a quick appetizer.
Tabouli Ingredients
When you're nearly ready to serve, gather up the tabouli ingredients. LOTS of parsley, to start. If you've ever seen Middle Eastern tabouli (so many countries have a version), you'll notice that it's much more green than ours is - more green, always! If you'd like to double or even triple the amount of fresh herbs here, feel free to do so.
I kept the veggies simple here with just cucumber and tomato. Chopped red onion and olives or capers would also be delicious added to this tabouli salad.
Chop the parsley, cucumber, and tomato. Other ingredients are the other half of the lemon, more salt and crushed red pepper, cooked/cooled couscous, and the marinated chick peas.
Pro Tip: If you have extra couscous, cook more than you need for this recipe and use it later in the week for sweet potato couscous bowls!
Drain the chick peas but reserve the marinade - we'll use it to flavor the salad.
Start to build the tabouli by adding the couscous, tomato, cucumber, parsley, and half the marinated chickpeas to a large bowl. Squeeze in the rest of the lemon juice and drizzle a few tablespoons of the bean marinade over the salad.
Stir everything together, and taste/season/taste/season. I usually add almost all of the juice from the beans and a bit more salt.
Leftovers and Make-Ahead
If you're making this in advance, add some extra lemon juice and a sprinkle of salt right before serving to wake the flavors back up. Alternatively, you could save half of the marinade from the chickpeas and drizzle it over the tabouli right before serving.
This can be made up to 3 days in advance and is really good as leftovers or for a meal prep lunch situation.
Because of the simplicity of the ingredients, the tabouli should taste really flavorful, with a lot of salt and lemon juice - not bland at all. When it tastes great to you, serve it in a big bowl with the rest of the marinated chick peas on top.
I mean. Full meal, check. Vegan side dish, check. Snack, done. Breakfast? It all works.
More Easy Vegan Recipes
Recipe
Vegan Tabouli Salad
Ingredients
- 1 can chick peas Garbanzo beans, about 15 ounces
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 lemon juiced
- 1 cup fresh parsley leaves roughly chopped
- 1 medium tomato seeded and chopped
- ½ English or Hothouse cucumber chopped
- 1 ½ cups dried couscous cooked to package directions and cooled (about 3 cups cooked)
Instructions
- Drain and rinse the chick peas. In a bowl, combine the chick peas with the salt, crushed red pepper, olive oil, and half of the lemon juice. Stir, and let sit for 30 minutes or up to 4 hours. The longer the better!
- When the chick peas have marinated, combine the parsley, tomato, cucumber, and couscous in a large bowl with the rest of the lemon juice. Sprinkle with salt.
- Drain the chick peas and reserve the marinating liquid. Add half the chick peas to the tabouli mixture.
- Stir gently together and taste the salad; drizzle over the marinade from the chick peas a little bit at a time until the salad is very flavorful. Sprinkle on extra salt and crushed red pepper to your taste.
- Serve the salad in shallow bowls or plates topped with the remaining garbanzo beans. Enjoy!
Leslie says
Wonderful recipe!
Megan says
Super tasty and easy. Thanks for the recipe.
Emily Flint says
This was delicious!
Jamie says
I love the flavors in this!
Colleen says
This is one of my favorite salads. It's a meal in itself.