I was thrilled that my quinoa cauliflower tabbouleh creation turned out FANTASTIC, so of course I have to share it with you!

I was about to try my hand at making cauliflower tabbouleh when I thought, “What if I combined cauliflower rice with quinoa to create a hybrid recipe for quinoa cauliflower tabbouleh?”

I’m glad I had that thought because this easy vegan recipe I came up with is super refreshing, satisfying, clean, and nutrient-packed. I have officially labeled it as a new “go-to vegan meal” on my list of meals I see myself making on a regular basis.

As much as I love convenience, I decided to make my own cauliflower rice, as opposed to buying it pre-made in the freezer section. From my experience, the frozen cauliflower rice (which may or may not be found in your local mainstream grocery stores) is great for cooking with, but for raw vegan recipes, it just doesn’t come out right.

Most tabbouleh recipes contain red onion. I’m not generally a fan of raw red onion because I feel like no matter what I do, I can taste onion in my mouth for the rest of the day. Red onion does add a nice crunch to dishes though, so I decided to add cucumber to this easy vegan recipe instead. I was pleasantly surprised how well this worked out! I did use garlic and onion powder in my recipe, but not enough to make you un-kissable 😉

I’ll admit, there is a lot of chopping involved in this quinoa cauliflower tabbouleh recipe, so I suggest making a double batch and snacking on it all week. I actually doubled this recipe and ended up eating half of it in just one day! I love making simple vegan meals that are guilt-free like this, knowing it’s doing my body good.

By the way, if you want to make this more of a meal than a side dish, I’m guessing lentils or chickpeas would be a great addition. And for my fellow fitness freaks, although quinoa contains complete vegan protein, adding legumes will up the protein content significantly.

Let me know how you like it!

Quinoa Cauliflower Tabbouleh

Ingredients

• 1 cup cauliflower rice
• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 cup cucumber, chopped
• 1 cup parsley, chopped
• 1 medium lemon, juiced
• 6-10 mint leaves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/8-1/4 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt
• Black pepper to taste

Instructions for Cauliflower Rice

Option 1:

• Place cauliflower florets in your high speed blender
• Cover with water
• Pulse blend until the cauliflower has been chopped into rice-size pieces
• Strain thoroughly
• Allow time to dry or use a paper towel to pat dry

Option 2:

• Use a box grater with the medium-size holes to grate the cauliflower florets into rice-size pieces.

Instructions for Tabbouleh

• Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly… That’s all, you’re done!

Enjoy!