Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is a Levantine salad that is mostly parsley, not mostly grain. That is the single most important thing about it, and the thing most versions outside the region get backwards.

What it actually is

Finely chopped flat-leaf parsley makes up the bulk of the bowl. To it go a small amount of fine bulgur, tomato, mint and spring onion, dressed with nothing more than lemon juice, olive oil and salt.

Everything is cut with a knife, never blitzed — a food processor bruises the parsley and turns it dark. The bulgur is soaked, not cooked, and there is far less of it than people expect.

Outside Lebanon and Syria the ratio is often inverted into a bulgur salad flecked with herbs. That is a perfectly nice thing to eat, but it is a different dish.

How it's served

• Cold, as part of a mezze spread beside hummus and baba ganoush.
• Scooped with lettuce or young cabbage leaves, which is the traditional way — not with a fork.
• Freshly dressed; it weeps and goes limp if it stands too long in lemon.

Writing it on a menu

• Say it is parsley-led. Guests who know the dish are checking for exactly this, and guests who don't will otherwise expect a grain salad.
• Flag the gluten. Bulgur is wheat, and a surprising number of people assume tabbouleh is gluten-free. A quinoa version is an easy alternative to offer, but label it as its own line.
• It is vegan and dairy-free as standard — one of the simplest vegan entries on a mezze menu.