The tabbouleh recipe Clean Plates founder Jared Koch included in The Clean Plates Cookbook is one of those trompe l’oeil dishes that play tricks on the eyes. It’s a gluten-free and raw-diet-friendly recipe from Los Angeles’s M Café, and what looks like a traditional grain-based tabbouleh is actually ground cauliflower. The cauliflower adds texture to the herby salad, but its purpose goes beyond that: It’s also a sneaky way to get a big dose of veggies onto your plate.
- Makes 6 to 8 side-dish servings (about 7 cups)
- Start to Finish: 40 minutes
Ingredients
- Juice of 1 to 2 lemons
- 2 pounds cauliflower, cored and cut into large bite-size pieces (about 6½ cups florets)
- 1 large cucumber–halved lengthwise, seeded and cut into ¼-inch dice (about 2 cups)
- 1 large tomato, cut into ¼-inch dice (about 1 cup)
- ¾ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
- ½ cup finely chopped dill
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped mint leaves
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Fine sea salt
Directions
1. Zest one of the lemons. Juice the zested lemon along with enough of the remaining lemon to yield ⅓ cup lemon juice. Set the zest and juice aside.
2. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the cauliflower to finely chop it into small, grainlike pieces, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Cover a work surface with a clean, dry kitchen towel and turn the cauliflower out onto the towel. Twist the cauliflower in the towel to extract any moisture.
3. Transfer the cauliflower to a large mixing bowl and add the lemon zest, lemon juice, cucumber, tomato, parsley, dill, mint and olive oil. Season to taste with salt and serve at room temperature or chilled.