How to cook bulgur for a side dish: recipe

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

As a rule, rice groats or buckwheat often appear on our tables. Tired? Then today we will tell you how to cook bulgur for a side dish. Many housewives have probably heard about this product, but ignorance of the matter, as they say, made them pass by the shelves with this cereal. And done in vain.

Let's break it down and talk more about bulgur. What kind of cereal is it, how to cook it, what products to combine with, etc. We will also offer some simple, but very tasty recipes that even a novice in culinary skills can handle.

What is bulgur

So, the first question that we will analyze is what is bulgur. This cereal is crushed (devoid of its shell), steamed, and then dried wheat. Depending on the type and method of crushing, bulgur can be fine, medium or coarse (pilavik). Bulgur porridge is very popular in the East. It is especially eaten in Turkey, even replacing rice.

What to cook

If you are just starting to get acquainted with such a product as bulgur, what kind of cereal is it, howcook it and for which dishes it is best suited, until you know, then let's look into this issue. Firstly, as we said above, this is an excellent replacement for our usual rice. From it you can cook an amazing delicious pilaf.

Also, bulgur is used to make fragrant cakes and bread. You can make hearty pies from bulgur using grits as a filling. Many housewives use this product when preparing tomato soups with a fairly thick consistency. And for salads, bulgur is the best.

Bulgur with meat goes just great. It especially interacts with chicken or lean beef. A very successful combination - bulgur and minced meat. You can stuff pies and pies with this mixture, stuff tomatoes and sweet bell peppers, eggplants and zucchini.

By the way, bulgur porridge is an ideal dish for those who are on a diet, fasting or practicing vegetarianism. It can be prepared sweet or lightly s alted. Bulgur is crumbly, it is perfect for vegetables as a side dish or can serve as an independent dish.

Useful properties

This wonderfully tasty cereal with a subtle nutty flavor is very good for he alth. Bulgur contains a large amount of carbohydrates, and the glycemic index of the product is very low. The nutritional value, by comparison, of bulgur is the same as that of pasta made from durum wheat. And they are known to be very useful.

In groatscontains a large amount of vitamins and trace elements useful for our body. Bulgur is rich in magnesium, zinc, iron and phosphorus.

How to cook bulgur

So, let's move on to the main question - how to cook bulgur for a side dish? Let's just say that there are two ways to prepare this dish. Firstly, cereals can be quickly fried in oil and then quickly boiled. Secondly, you can simply boil it for a long time and get crumbly porridge, no worse than in the first version.

As a rule, Russian housewives answer the question: “How to cook bulgur for a side dish?” - they will answer that it needs to be cooked. The roasting option is often not used in our country, as it takes time and some skill. This option is more often used in the East and Central Asia.

We will cook bulgur today, as it is a faster and easier option, suitable for our hostesses. This will require:

• One cup of cereal.
• Two cups of water.
• S alt, pepper.
• Some lemon juice.
• Cinnamon stick (optional).

Pour water into a saucepan, put a cinnamon stick in it and bring to a boil. We take out the stick (it will no longer be needed, since it has already given up all its aromatic properties to water during cooking). Immerse wheat groats in water, season with s alt and pepper and cook for about ten minutes.

How to cook bulgur for a side dish correctly? As a rule, no one gives you an exact cooking time.will say. It will range from seven to fifteen minutes. Experienced housewives say that porridge is ready when all the water has been absorbed into the cereal. See for yourself, observe, calculate your cooking time. After all, everything will depend on the amount of cereal that you cook, and on the strength of the fire on which the pan stands.

After the porridge has absorbed all the water, turn off the fire. Add a little butter there, mix, add lemon juice, mix and leave the dish alone for ten minutes. You can even cover the saucepan with a thick towel. Or put it in your pillows like your mom used to do with mashed potatoes as a child.

Bulgur with meat

As promised, we tell you how to cook bulgur as a side dish for meat. For this dish, we need a very simple set of ingredients:

• One glass of bulgur.
• 400 grams of beef.
• One can of peeled tomatoes.
• Butter - 40-50 grams.
• S alt and pepper and spices to taste.

This dish uses two containers at once: a frying pan and a saucepan. Everything is prepared at the same time, which is very convenient and saves time. In a saucepan, as you already understood, we will cook bulgur. How to do this, we have already told a little higher. Put the meat, cut into long strips, into the pan. Add tomatoes, s alt, pepper and fry over medium heat for about ten minutes. During this time, the cereal will be cooked. Add bulgur to the meat, add a little water and simmer for some more time until the water has completely evaporated. You can also add butter. But if you're on a diet,even without oil, the dish will turn out to be very tasty and satisfying.

Serve to the table by decorating the dish with sweet bell pepper, slices of lemon, fresh tomato or figured cucumber.

Cooking soup

Soups with bulgur are also very tasty and fragrant. The dish is perfect for lovers of "thin" for lunch, and capricious children will also like it. But we want to note right away that it is not recommended to cook a large pot, as we usually do with borscht. After standing for a day in the refrigerator, such a soup will turn from “thin” into an ordinary thick porridge.

To prepare the soup, you will need pre-prepared meat broth. We will add potatoes and frying (carrots with onions) to it. Bulgur is recommended to fry a little in oil and then also add to the soup. For taste and aroma, at the end of cooking, add more greens. This is an excellent dish for a children's and dietary table. The soup turns out to be rich, satisfying, but at the same time it is easily digested and does not provide extra calories.

Bulgur pilaf

Pilaf is a favorite dish of many. Making it with bulgur instead of rice is easy. According to the traditional principle, fry the meat, add carrots, onions. Pour in bulgur and add water. It should be noted that such a pilaf will cook an order of magnitude faster than with rice. It will take you about fifteen minutes. Then turn off the fire, cover with a towel, wait half an hour and you can eat amazingly tasty and crumbly pilaf.