Grandma’s Tabbouleh Recipe

My French grandmother would make her tabbouleh recipe almost every time she had guests. When I was there, I loved picking herbs from the garden and chopping them up. But the real fascination for me was watching the couscous cook all on its own!

Influences on French Cuisine

French cuisine is very influenced by the former French territories, particularly Northern Africa and the West Indies. Ingredients for couscous and aromatic curries are easy to find in all French supermarkets because they are part of our national cuisine. These are dishes we love to cook at home, order in restaurants, or enjoy as street food from market stalls.

French Taboulé

Some popular dishes we make are uniquely French, like taboulé. Sometimes we call it ‘tabbouleh’, but our version uses couscous and fewer herbs than the original.

Every French family has it’s own taboulé recipe, their preferred couscous salad with local herbs, vegetables and sometimes raisins. We make it for picnics and barbecues, or buy it ready made for a fast lunch option.

My Grandmother’s Recipe

My grandmother used to send me out into the garden with a pair of scissors to collect the herbs for taboulé. I had to learn to identify each of the herbs she would asked for – persil (parsley), menthe (mint), ciboulette (chives), estragon (tarrogan) and cerfeuil (French parsley or chervil) – then cut them up with the scissors until I had a bowlful.

I’d watch her grating the onions, tomatoes and cucumbers with a cheese grater, leaving just the skin ungrated. Grating vegetables may seem unusual, but this gives you enough liquid to soak the couscous in, far more than you would get if you chopped them.