Tabouleh is for people who find salads a boring, non-event. Traditionally, you would soak the burghul in water then add lemon juice and olive oil. But other countries make tabouleh-type preparations - they soak the burghul in lemon juice, tomato juice, onion juice or verjuice.

Some people also use chopped watercress instead of parsley.

You usually let the salad meld its beautiful flavours for a few hours before you eat it. Tabouleh has very little burghul in it actually and lavish amounts of parsley and mint. It is eaten scooped up in cos lettuce leaves.