Tabouli Salad

Prep Time: 1 hour
Yield: 6 servings (makes about 6 cups of salad)

Ingredients

1¼ cups water
½ cup dry/uncooked millet (or 2½ cups cooked)
1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans (or about 1¾ cups), rinsed
1½ cups halved or quartered cherry tomatoes
1 cup chopped cucumber (peeled or unpeeled)
¾ cup chopped fresh parsley (curly or flat Italian)
3 green onions (green and white parts)
6 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves
1 to 2 cloves garlic, pressed (or very finely chopped)

Instructions

Bring the water and millet to a boil in a small to medium saucepan over high heat, uncovered. Reduce the heat to low, then cover and simmer for 25 minutes. While the millet is cooking, you can prepare the remaining ingredients.
After cooking the millet, remove it from heat and let it sit for 10 minutes with the lid on, then fluff it with a fork, and let cool totally or mostly.
Add the millet to a large bowl along with all the remaining ingredients and toss to combine. Season with black ground pepper if desired. For the best flavor, served chilled after 2 to 3 hours or after refrigerating overnight. Store in an airtight container in the fridge up to 4 days.

Notes
Tabouli is traditionally made with bulgur wheat, but to make it a gluten-free recipe, it was made with millet. You could just as easily replace the millet with 2½ cups cooked quinoa or brown rice. Persian or English cucumber work best for this recipe. Tabouli can be served as a salad or a side dish to a meal. You could put it in lettuce leaves or steamed corn tortillas or with falafel and hummus. It is often served with pita bread or pita chips. For variety you could add chopped avocado, radishes, red bell peppers, cilantro, pomegranate seeds, fresh fennel, and or finely chopped raw cauliflower. Feel free to adjust this salad to your taste, for example you could use more (or less) parsley or lemon juice, etc.