Kale Tabouli

I first fell in love with tabouli when I ate at a Mediterranean cafe called the Little Salama Cafe, Hobart  Tasmania years ago. I enjoyed the freshness it brought to my kofta wrap and the much needed vegetable side for my grilled lamb lunch box with rice and hummus and tahini sauce. Since I have moved away from Hobart 5 years ago, I have been replicating the meals I had from the cafe whenever I had an episode of Little-Salama-lunch-box-cravings ha! (You can witness my replication from my old post here, which I was also talking about Little Salama. Pathetic much?)

Sometimes, with replication comes innovation variation (just realise there’re kale tabouli recipes on the net already). I often stick to the conventional tabouli with parsley, fresh tomatoes etc… Since I have found love in kale and quinoa which I have them stocked quite frequently, I decided to incorprate them into my tabouli. So here’s my take on kale tabouli. Enjoy! 🙂

Kale Tabouli

(Makes about 2 cups)

What you’ll need:-

• 1/4 cup of uncooked quinoa
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• A bunch of kale (Cavelo Nero) – about 11 leaves, finely sliced
• A pinch of salt
• 1/2 onion, finely diced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Olive oil
• A handful of flat parsley
• 1/2 cup semi- sundried tomatoes, diced

(1) Cook quinoa according to the packet instructions – see Note 1. (2) Add a tbsp of olive oil in a pan and heat over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add kale and a pinch of salt. Saute until the kale turns bright green and transfer to a large salad bowl to cool – see Note 2. (3) Juice a lemon and add diced onion to macerate a little. In the meantime, finely slice a handful of parsley and dice semi-sundried tomatoes. (4) Combine quinoa, parsley and sundried tomatoes with the kale in the salad bowl.  Add olive oil to diced onion macerated in lemon juice (olive oil to lemon juice ratio about 2:1). Whisk to mix and pour dressing into the kale mixture. Toss to combine all the ingredients. Drizzle more olive oil if necessary. Serve immediately.

Note 1 – To cook quinoa, the water to uncooked quinoa ratio is 2:1. I cook quinoa in boiling water, covered. When the water is ALMOST absorbed by the quinoa, I turn off the flame and allow to quinoa to sit for a couple of minutes (covered) until all water is being obsorbed.

Note 2 – Do not saute the kale for too long. I don’t want to wilt the kale…but just to get rid of the “raw taste” of kale. 🙂

Note 3 – The lemon juice will discolour the kale after some time. Hence if you were to make this ahead, I suggest you dress the tabouli just before serving.