This recipe anglicises tabbouleh without losing any of its characteristic punch or freshness. It’s a great recipe, that Ollie Dabbous shared with festival go-ers at the Diners Club Cook School at Taste, that encourage using ingredients that could potentially end up in food waste, turning them into something delicious. It’s great served with hummus & pitta, grilled lamb chops or basically anything cooked over a barbecue this Summer.

NEED TO KNOW

Preparation Time: 20 minutes + cooling time
Serves: UNKNOWN
Difficulty: Intermediate 

INGREDIENTS
  • 1 lemon, whole
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled and grated on a microplane
  • 1 tbsp raw apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp cumin powder
  • Pinch Salt
  • 75g virgin rapeseed oil
  • 50g parsley leaf and stem
  • 10g mint leaves, roughly chopped
  • 2 spring onions, finely sliced
  • 200g cooked spelt
  • 300g ripe beef tomato, chopped approx 1cm
  • Pinch Salt
  • 100g broccoli floret and stem (peel the stem first), grated on a box grater on the coarse side
METHOD FOR THE CHAKALAKA
  1. Grate the zest of the lemon with a microplane into a bowl, then cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice, discarding any pips.
  2. Finely chop the remains of the lemon and place into a large pan of cold water, approx 2l; bring to a boil then turn off the heat.
  3. Add the garlic, cider vinegar, cumin, salt and rapeseed oil and mix well; check seasoning. 
  4. Finely chop the parsley stem then roughly chop the leaf. Place in a large bowl along with the rest of the ingredients, season and mix well. 
  5. Strain the blanched lemon pith and then add to the dressing and leave to cool to room temperature. 
  6. Mix the dressing into the tabbouleh mix and stir well to combine. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Recipe by Ollie Dabbous.