This chickpea tabouli recipe ticks all my weeknight meal boxes! It can be made in five minutes and can be a quick side dish or vegetarian main meal. I love it because it's packed with different textures and flavours. As an added bonus, the recipe swaps out couscous for lentils and chickpea which are gluten-free and full of fibre.
I decided to produce a quick 1-minute video to show you just how simple this chickpea tabouli is to prepare.
I added creamy feta, and crunchy roasted nuts and seeds to make this salad something a little more tasty and special. It also adds a whole lot of fabulous nutrients. By using lemon as the salad dressing the ingredients flavours really shine through and calories from fat are kept to a minimum.
Healthy Chickpea Tabouli
Ingredients
- 60 g continental Parsley
- 80 g red onion quartered
- 130 g tomato quartered (firm)
- 400 g lentil drained canned weight 240g
- 400 g chickpea can drained
- 100 g feta crumbled
- 25 g raw cashew
- 25 g mixed pinenut, pepita seed and sunflower seed
- 1 lemon juice only
Instructions
- Place parsley in the TM bowl. Turbo 1 sec.
- Scrape the parsley out of the TM and onto the serving dish.
- Add the red onion to TM bowl. Turbo ยฝ sec.
- Add the chopped onion and liquid to the parsley in the serving dish.
- Place the tomato in TM bowl. Turbo ยฝ sec.
- Add the chopped tomato and liquid to the parsley in the serving dish. If any large pieces remain just chop them by hand.
- Add the drained chickpeas, lentil and lemon juice to the parsley salad. Stir gently to combine.
- In a dry frying pan toast the nuts and seeds until fragrant and golden. Meanwhile, crumble the feta over the salad.
- Add the roasted nuts to the top of the salad and garnish with a few rings of thinly sliced red onion.
Nutrition
Fibre is essential for a healthy diet but studies have shown that most of the population consumes less than half their recommended fibre each day. This is significant as fibre is the fabulous nutrient that keeps you feeling satisfied longer. Unfortunately, some of the popular restrictive weight loss diets actually make it difficult to consume enough fibre.
Want to know more about why I love fibre?
What is Fibre?
There is 3 types of fibre, soluble, insoluble and resistant starch. Each type of fibre has a different job to perform in the body. As researchers uncover more about our stomach flora we're learning the importance or pre-biotics in gut health. Fibre is a pre-biotic which helps the gut microbes flourish. Good gut health can have many positive outcomes in the body such as weight loss, reduction in inflammatory diseases, diabetes and better nutrient absorption.
Soluble fibre helps slow your stomach emptying which helps you feel full longer. It also helps to lower cholesterol and stabilise blood glucose levels in the body. Soluble fibre is found in fruits, vegetables, oats, barley and legumes
Insoluble fibre absorbs water as it passes through the body which adds bulk to the fibre as it passes through the body. It helps to support regular bowel movements and also helps to keep us full. and keep the bowel environment healthy. Insoluble fibre is found in wholegrain bread and cereals, nuts, seeds, wheat bran and the skin of fruit and vegetables.
Resistant starch is not digested in the small intestine and instead proceeds to the large intestine unaltered. When resistant starch comes in contact with our gut bacteria it feeds the good bacteria and colonies can multiple. Resistant starch is found in under-ripe bananas, cooked and cooled potato and rice.
I hope you don't mind my little rant, fibre and probiotics are a favourite topic of mine. If you're looking for some delicious probiotic recipes take a look at my Basic Thermomix Kimchi or my introduction to Kombucha.
If you would like more great Thermomix recipes, please follow the ThermoKitchen FB Page. I share loads of great recipes on the page. Our community group page also shares recipes from other fabulous Thermomix bloggers.
Thanks for stopping by!
Bec says
Could I make this the night before a BBQ?
Julie Carlyle says
Hi Bec
This would be fine to make the night before a BBQ.
Julie