Tabouli Recipe with Hemp Hearts | Keto Tabbouleh Recipe

This easy Keto Tabouli recipe uses hemp hearts for a delicious, vegetarian keto side dish. Eat it as a salad, or use it as a savory fat bomb and enjoy a wonderful, fast salad.

What Makes This Tabouli Recipe SO Great?

• Low Carb. Only 3 net carbs per serving.
• Fast. Done in less than 30 minutes.
• Easy. Just chop and mix. A true no-cook recipe.
• Healthy. Packed full of veggies and high in fiber.
• Vegetarian. A great vegetarian side dish or salad.
• Delicious. Loaded with flavor from a variety of vegetables and herbs.

If you've been trying to eat a lower carb diet, and have been missing Tabouli recipes, you will be delighted with this recipe.

What is Tabouli (Tabouleh)?

Tabouli is a Mediterranean side dish, or salad traditionally made with bulgur. Bulgur wheat is a whole wheat grain that has been cracked and partially pre-cooked. Is bulgar keto? No. That's why I substituted it for something different in this recipe.

Are There Carbs In Tabouli?

As soon as I said wheat, I'm sure you realized that's not low carb. One cup of tabbouleh contains approximately 16 grams of carbohydrates. So to make this tabouli keto-friendly, I had to be creative about what else I could use in its place.

So I decided to try hemp hearts instead.

What Are Hemp Hearts?

Many aren't familiar with hemp hearts and the delicious flavor they can add to a dish. They're a favorite ingredient of mine especially when it comes to a vegetarian dish.

They're packed with nutrients which is a key factor to a well-rounded vegetarian dish.

So they start with unhulled hemp seeds. The problem is that those are not easy or appealing to most Western palettes in their unhulled state.

Hemp hearts (also known as shelled hemp seed or hemp nut) are the hemp seeds with the hard, crunchy layer on the outside removed. Essentially, it's the middle portion of the hemp seed, hence the name "hemp hearts."

What Is In Keto Tabouli Salad?

So many amazing things are used to make this perfectly refreshing tabouli salad recipe.

• Shelled hemp hearts
• Parsley
• Cucumber
• Tomato
• Onion
• Mint
• Lemon Juice
• Olive Oil

How to Make Keto Tabouli

1. Chop. Finely cut mint and parsley.
2. Pour. Add in lemon juice. If you don't have any, you can try this with lime juice for a different flavor.
3. Dump. Add in oil and salt. I used olive oil, but you could use whatever keto-friendly oil you prefer. Just be sure to use a relatively light/unflavored oil in this recipe.
4. Chop Again. Cut up some green onions. I used both the green and white portions of the onions. As you get these vegetables chopped, add them into the bowl with the herbs and mix as you go.
5. Dice. Chop up some cucumber. Notice how I only partially peeled the cucumber? I call these zebra cucumbers. The mix or dark and light green makes this dish quite pretty.
6. Cut. Dice some cherry tomatoes. You'll see below I used both orange and red cherry tomatoes. I like the mix of colors in the salad plus cherry tomatoes tend to be lower in carbs.

7. Pour. To the bowlful of mixed veggie goodness, and the dressing, add in the hemp hearts and mix well.

8. Serve. And that's it! Your salad is ready.

Can You Freeze This Keto Tabouli Recipe?

Tabouli works well as a make-ahead dish. Many dishes don't taste as good reheated or leftovers. They usually lose their best taste once they cool down. However, with this Tabouli recipe, you'll notice the flavors only get better and better as it sits in the fridge. You won't even miss the tabouli carbs.

This dish will last quite a few days in the fridge and won't go bad. I wouldn't suggest freezing this dish though. Make enough to eat within a week, but no longer.

I would suggest you try some right away, and store the leftovers. It tastes quite different when freshly made, versus eaten later. They're both tasty--just different.

What to Serve with Hemp Hearts Tabouli?

If you're looking for something to go with your Tabouli recipe, Gyros, Tzatziki, and Shawarma, or really any other grilled meat would do. This dish works well as a side or filler.

Not to mention, it functions as a fat bomb if you follow the keto lifestyle. Among all the other great aspects of this dish, it's also vegetarian keto, vegan keto, wheat/grain free, and is also nut free. This means this dish is allergy-friendly.

Want More Keto Recipes?

• Big Mac Salad - A healthy alternative to the real thing.
• Instant Pot Butter Chicken - why I'm the "Butter Chicken Lady".
• Instant Pot Spaghetti Squash - Easy and delicious.
• Chicken Vindaloo - Authentic flavors made in the Instant Pot!
• Cheesy Cauliflower - The perfect Keto side dish.
• Keto Lasagna - The ultimate keto comfort food.
• Keto Bread - Not eggy tasting like some others.
• Low Carb Crackers with Seeds - perfect for dipping.
• Chaffles - one of my many keto breafkast recipes.
• Loaded Broccoli Salad- a refreshing salad recipe.

If you love this Keto Tabouli recipe as much as I do, make sure you share it with your friends on Facebook and Pinterest so they can try it too.

Originally Published May 5, 2019

Don't forget to check out my other Keto cookbooks.

Keto Instant Pot, Keto Fat Bombs, Sweets, & Treats, and Easy keto in 30 minutes.