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Very Veggie Pesach 2025: Quinoa Tabbouleh


I'm getting a very late start on recipes this year, but I have three of them coming ASAP, all vegan made with quinoa and using mostly ingredients that are readily available.

Today's entry is Quinoa Tabbouleh. Tabbouleh (pronounced tuh-BOO-lee and spelled in a variety of ways) is a popular traditional Mediterranean salad, found throughout the Middle East (including Israel) with variations in Greece and Armenia. The primary ingredients are parsley and bulgur wheat (oops). Obviously, bulgur wheat is not for Passover by anybody's standards! But I tried making it with quinoa instead of bulgur wheat and it worked nicely, a good side dish or lunch option. And other than the quinoa, the traditional ingredients are just fresh herbs and vegetables, lemon juice and salt, all of which are readily available for Passover.

This recipe is gluten free and non-gebrochts. It is also vegan. The quinoa gives it plenty of protein, so it can be used as a vegan main course but it's really better as a side dish or light lunch.

Ingredients

Dressing

  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1 clove garlic, pressed
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt

"Grain"

  • 1 cup quinoa (measured before preparation)

Vegetables

  • 1 bunch curly parsley, gently chopped
  • 1 cucumber, sliced and quartered
  • 1 or 2 tomatoes, diced (I like to use 2 plum tomatoes, sliced and quartered like the cucumbers)
  • 2 scallions, chopped
  • small handful of mint leaves, finely chopped

Kashrut Notes

  • Most major kosher certification organizations now accept quinoa as permitted for Passover (they didn't always). But now they are requiring Passover certification for it! This can make KFP quinoa hard to find so you may want to talk to your rabbi about it. But seriously, if you're vegetarian and keeping Passover, you probably already have made arrangements for quinoa.
  • Fresh produce is not a problem for Passover, which covers most of the other ingredients: parsley, cucumber, tomatoes, scallions, mint leaves, garlic and lemon juice if you're squeezing your own. If you don't want to squeeze your own lemon juice, ReaLemon brand is kosher for Passover without any need for special certification.
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil is kosher for Passover without any special certification as long as it doesn't have any additives or flavorings
  • Kosher salt is a coarse-grained salt traditionally used to remove blood from meat in the kashering process, but it's also a very popular kind of salt for chefs, like sea salt. For Passover purposes, Kosher Salt is ideal for Passover because it never has iodine, which is the main Passover problem for salt. Morton's brand and Diamond Crystal brand, the two most popular brands of Kosher Salt, are certified Kosher for Passover year-round! Just make sure you use a fresh source or one that has been set aside for Passover so there is no cross-contamination. By the way: you can also put this in a grinder and use it for table salt or in any recipe that usually uses table salt.
Preparation
  • Cook the quinoa according to package directions
  • While the quinoa is cooking, prepare the vegetables. Chop the parsley very gently: you want it to have its original texture but be small enough to serve and put in your mouth. The others can be as small as you want. Put them all in a large bowl.
  • When the quinoa is finished, drain it and spray with cold water over the sink to cool it down, then put it into the bowl with the vegetables and stir them all together until well-mixed.
  • Whisk together the dressing ingredients. When you're ready to serve, pour the dressing over the quinoa and vegetables in the bowl and stir again. If you don't plan to finish it in one sitting, you may want to store the dressing separately from the rest and add the dressing when you're ready to eat it.
And that's all there is to it!
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