Tomato and Bulgur Salad With Herbs
Updated July 28, 2025
Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
- Total Time
- 25 minutes
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 15 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
1 large ripe plum tomato (8 ounces)
½ cup fine bulgur
¾ teaspoon ground allspice
Fine sea salt and black pepper
1 ½ pounds ripe heirloom and cherry tomatoes, halved, quartered, or cut into large chunks
4 scallions, thinly sliced
Scant ½ cup roughly torn mint leaves
Scant ½ cup roughly chopped parsley leaves and tender stems
1 garlic clove, finely grated
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to serve
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses, plus more to serve
2 teaspoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
36 grams carbs; 246 calories; 8 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 11 grams fat; 7 grams fiber; 711 milligrams sodium; 5 grams protein; 16 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Use a box grater to roughly grate the plum tomato into a large mixing bowl, discarding the skin. Add the bulgur, allspice, ½ teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon water, and give everything a good mix. Leave to settle for 10 to 15 minutes, until the bulgur softens.
- Step 2
Stir in the cut-up tomatoes, scallions, herbs and garlic. Add the olive oil, pomegranate molasses, maple syrup, vinegar, another ½ teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper, and toss to combine. Taste and adjust salt quantities as desired, then pile onto a large serving bowl.
- Step 3
Drizzle with more pomegranate molasses and olive oil, and serve.
Private Notes
Comments
Delicious, but just be sure to use the finely ground bulghur, which is sometimes labelled as #0 or #1, as all the others with higher numbers will not hydrate properly or enough to be edible.
There's a comment below that explains different kinds of bulgur, and that would have been helpful in the recipe. I'm not that familiar with bulgur, so merely listing "fine" bulgur was not enough to tip me off that what I had would not hydrate (as the recipe doesn't call for it to be cooked). I ended up with hard, undone bulgur. In addition to a more explicit tip/headnote, I think it would be helpful to offer an alternative using non-fine, cooked bulgur...not many Americans have different bulgurs
Yu-u-um!! Wonderful tabouli variation. I cooked the bulgur first and made a dressing using half of the pomegranate molasses and maple syrup (personal preference). I tossed the tomatoes in the dressing first before adding to the mix. Can’t wait to make again.
Used 1 cup of quinoa which cooks in about 5 minutes just sitting in hot water. Worked great! I will also try farro as it is a wheat grain like bulgur (farro takes 40 minutes to cook). I added a splash of lemon juice at the end because it seemed to need more acid. This was just right!
Can you substitute Qinoa for bulgar?
Agree with all the comments regarding bulgur wheat. I wasn't able to find anything locally that matched the description. Cooking bulgur separately and joining it with the tomato juices will become way too wet overall, or using too big of bulgur will be hard and inedible. I figured out a way to make it work and the flavors are delicious, but I would strongly recommend some notes about this nuance in the actual recipe.