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Bulgur Wheat Pilaf

On our face book page, we had asked readers what recipes they would like to see  on this website. We got a whole range of ideas. A few wanted one pot dishes, slow cooker recipes, Samosas, Southern fried chicken etc. We will definitely try to cook up all you asked for. To start off, lets make a one pot dish which is tasty and healthy all at the same time. It is easy to make for dinner and something you can carry to work the next day for lunch.

We used fresh vegetables, but if you are hard pressed for time you can always use a bag of frozen peas and carrot. Growing up, amma would try to make a lot of these one pot dishes which we loved to take to school for lunch. Rasam and sambhar were not our favorites as the rice would absorb everything and what we will encounter is a big hard blob of rice that one would not want to eat. We were lucky, there was a guy called Chimney( I think it was his nickname) who had the most number of hooks/handles in his cycle. He was paid a fixed amount for the month and he would come  at a certain time everyday to pick up our lunch to deliver piping hot food  to us at school. He carried more than 50 lunch bags on his cycle. We would wait for him in a designated corner and he would there for us to pick up our empty lunch bags. He was a fun guy who was always cracking jokes and handed our lunch box to us telling us a joke or having something really nice to say. Until we had him drop lunch off we had hot food. When we moved  to a different state and had to carry our lunch in the morning, one pot dishes like this was a blessing. I tell you we were spoiled.

Coming to the recipe, we liked the idea of using bulgur wheat instead of rice and we LOVED it. According to Wikipedia, “Bulgur is more nutritious than rice and couscous, because it contains more fiber and more vitamins and minerals and has a lower glycemic index than white rice or couscous.Bulgur has a glycemic index of 46.”

Oil – 1 T

Butter – 1 T

Whole Cardamom – 4

Wholes Cloves – 2

Ginger – 1 tsp, minced

Garlic – 2 tsp, minced

green chilly – 2 slit in half (optional)

Chopped Onion – 1/2 cup

Carrots – 2, small dice

Potato – 1, small dice

Peas – 1/4 cup

Mushroom – 4, sliced

Turmeric – 1/2 tsp (optional)

Mint – 1 T, finely chopped

Cilantro – 1 T, finely chopped

Cracked/ bulgur Wheat – 2 cups

Water – 4 cups

salt to taste

• Heat butter and oil in a saute pan with a lid
• When the oil is hot, add cardamom and cloves and immediately add onions.
• Sweat the onions and add ginger and garlic.
• Cook for about 30 – 45 seconds.
• Stir in all the veggies and saute well.
• Add turmeric, fresh herbs and bulgur wheat
• Stir well such they are all well incorporated
• Add salt and water and bring it to a boil.
• when it comes to a boil, reduce to the lowest setting on your stove, close with a lid and let it cook until the water evaporates completely ( about 25-30 minutes)

Notes: Use any vegetable you have in the refrigerator. You can add bell pepper, green beans or endamame as well.

Options: You can cook this in a pressure cooker or saute everything and transfer to a rice cooker ( than it becomes two pots cooking)

Variations: You can omit whole spices and that will give you a very delicately flavored pilaf

This recipe goes to Radhika and Sudeshana for the Tiffin or Lunch box event.