Bulgur – what is this cereal. Delicious recipes and how much to cook bulgur in a pan or slow cooker

The content of the article

• What is bulgur
• Bulgur – benefit and harm
• How to cook bulgur
• How to cook bulgur
• Bulgur with vegetables
• Bulgur Salad
• Bulgur soup
• Bulgur pilaf
• Bulgur with mushrooms

Cereals occupy an important position in the healthy diet of every person. This is a key source of complex carbohydrates that saturate for a long time, a storehouse of vitamins and minerals. The most famous cereals are oatmeal, buckwheat, barley, millet, rice. A few people heard about bulgur, but even fewer people understand how to cook it correctly..

What is bulgur

The antiderivative of this product is wheat, which was harvested at the time of its milk maturity, thoroughly dried and crushed into small square pieces. The main thing that cooks advise to understand: bulgur groats is not porridge, but a side dish. It does not boil down to an absolutely mild state, always crumbly and with a hard middle. A couple of important nuances:

• For oriental cuisine, this is the basis of most hot dishes, mainly used in recipes like rice.
• In cooking, bulgur can be replaced with couscous: the difference between them is the degree of grinding. In fact, they are all wheat grain..

Bulgur – benefit and harm

Attractive appearance, excellent taste, traditional for all cereals calories within 350-360 kcal, a high content of dietary fiber due to not removed shell – the main characteristics of this product. The benefits and harms of Bulgur are little known to anyone. Who and why should include it in your menu?

• It is useful for diabetics due to its low GI – only 45 units.
• Bulgur milk porridge is an excellent option for children over 1.5 years of age.
• A large amount of fiber will help to improve the functioning of the intestine in individuals with gastrointestinal disorders.
• With problems with the heart and blood formation, frequent use of bulgur will give a positive dynamics due to potassium, magnesium and iron.

The useful properties of this cereal are more than the possible harm that only a person with gluten intolerance will experience. During an exacerbation of diseases of the digestive tract, it is better to refrain from bulgur. This product has no other contraindications, but each organism has a unique perception, therefore negative reactions cannot be ruled out even with the obvious absence of prerequisites for them.

How to cook bulgur

During cooking, this cereal grows significantly, which must be taken into account by the housewives, who first decided to master dishes with bulgur. There are hundreds of recipes based on it: it can be a component of salads, a garnish by analogy with pasta, added to soups for nutrition, mixed with minced meat. Almost all recipes with bulgur came from Turkish cuisine, where it is especially revered. This product has several features:

• It is not washed before work, and before cooking, it is fried with oil.
• Fine grits can be steamed and not cooked.
• This cereal goes well with dried fruits, seafood, vegetables, feta cheese, fish and meat.
• Do not combine bulgur with potatoes and any kind of cabbage.

How to cook bulgur

• Cooking time: 25 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 2 Persons.
• Calorie dishes: 539 kcal.
• Purpose: for lunch.
• Cuisine: Eastern.
• Difficulty: medium.

The maximum benefit from this cereal can be extracted only if it is properly cooked at home. This can be done by the classical method – on the stove, or in a slow cooker or pressure cooker. In any situation, the cereal will need to be fried first. Do you want to learn how to cook bulgur in a pan? This recipe will step by step reveal the technology of work for you. Keep in mind that for any technique a standard proportion of water to cereal is used as 2: 1.

Ingredients:

• bulgur – half a glass;
• boiling water – 200 ml;
• salt – 4 g;
• vegetable oil – 20 ml.

Cooking method:

1. Warm up the oil at the bottom of the cauldron, pour bulgur there.
2. Fry for exactly 1.5 minutes, stirring occasionally so that the cereal is completely covered with oil.
3. Pour boiling water, salt immediately. Leave to cook over low heat, be sure to cover it. If the water quickly started to boil, pour another half a cup.
4. How much to cook bulgur is determined by how it will be consumed further. For salads, it is prepared aldente, i.e. waiting time is reduced. On the side, it should be softer. The approximate cooking time on the stove is 20 minutes.

Bulgur with vegetables

• Cooking time: 45 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 4 Persons.
• Calorie dishes: 1504 kcal.
• Destination: for dinner.
• Cuisine: Vegetarian.
• Difficulty: medium.

You are considering how to cook bulgur with vegetables so that it is nutritious no less than with meat, but does not interfere with weight loss? You will love this vegetarian recipe photo. The dish is brought to readiness in the oven, which gives the bulgur, mashed with vegetables, an incredibly tasty aroma. Additionally, a pinch of thyme and / or marjoram can be added from spices.

Ingredients:

• large eggplant;
• bulgur – a glass;
• olive oil – 55 ml;
• cloves of garlic – 3 pcs.;
• onions – 150 g;
• carrots – 200 g;
• Bulgarian pepper – 250 g;
• dried basil, salt.

Cooking method:

1. Separately, fry chopped onions, grated carrots, sliced ​​thin straws with a spoonful of oil. The last to process similarly the cubes of peeled eggplant.
2. Transfer these products to a bowl, sprinkle with chopped garlic, the remaining oil, dried basil. Salt.
3. Warm the contents of the cauldron to hiss, pour bulgur, mix.
4. After 2 minutes, pour boiling water (400 ml), simmer for 17 minutes.
5. Transfer to oven (cover), cook another 10 minutes at 190 degrees.

Bulgur Salad

• Cooking time: 20 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 3 Persons.
• Calorie dishes: 1732 kcal.
• Purpose: for a snack.
• Cuisine: Eastern.
• Difficulty: easy.

Anyone who is considering what to make from bulgur needs to start mastering this grits with a tabula. This is a traditional oriental salad, serving as a snack and consisting of green leaves (mainly parsley) with cereals. Additionally, tomatoes, onions, fresh mint, lemon can be introduced. You need to season this healthy warm salad with bulgur with olive oil, whipped with spices. The classical proportion of the tabula suggests the predominance of greens, not cereals.

Ingredients:

• bulgur – 100 g;
• butter – 30 g;
• onions – 70 g;
• tomatoes – 600 g;
• lemons – 2 pcs.;
• bunches of parsley – 250 g;
• fresh mint – 40 g;
• coarse sea salt – 2/3 tsp;
• sumac;
• olive oil – 100 ml.

Cooking method:

1. Heat a piece of butter in a pan.
2. Pour bulgur there, fry for 1.5 minutes.
3. Pour a glass of water, reduce the power of the burner to 30%. Be sure to put the lid on the pan..
4. The cereal will cook for 18 minutes, after which you need to turn off the stove.
5. Wash the parsley, cut the leaves, chop (the stems are not needed). Mix with mint leaves.
6. Tomatoes and onions need to be chopped equally, add to greens.
7. Pour warm croup there. Add oil with a couple of grams of sumac and salt. Pour the juice of lemons.

Bulgur soup

• Cooking time: 55 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 3 Persons.
• Calorie dishes: 1017 kcal.
• Purpose: for lunch.
• Cuisine: Vegetarian.
• Difficulty: medium.

This cereal is striking in its nutritional value even to men, so vegetarians have it at a premium. A delicious and fragrant soup with bulgur and lentils is something that will instantly restore strength in the middle of a hard working day or after it. If you are on a diet and count calories, exclude sour cream. Such a dish does not harm even a child. A little trick: cereal processed with boiling water will boil faster, so let it stand for about half an hour.

Ingredients:

• lentils – 100 g;
• bulgur – 100 g;
• carrots – 150 g;
• tomatoes – 200 g;
• turmeric – 1/3 tsp;
• vegetable oil – 20 ml;
• sour cream 10% – 100 g;
• a bunch of greenery;
• dried cilantro – 1/2 tsp.

Cooking method:

1. Pour lentils with cold water (2 L). Start cooking.
2. Fry bulgur for 9 minutes. Pour in the same place when the lentils become easily pierced with a knife.
3. On the remaining oil, warm the spices, tomato cubes, grated carrots. Send to pan.
4. Cook for 20 minutes. To the finished soup you need to add sour cream and herbs.

Learn more about lentils – the benefits and harms, types of legumes and recipes.

Bulgur pilaf

• Cooking time: 1 hour 20 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 3 Persons.
• Calorie dishes: 2176 kcal.
• Purpose: for lunch.
• Cuisine: Eastern.
• Difficulty: medium.

According to Turkish canons, bulgur pilaf is cooked only using vegetables, but there are still plenty of options for this dish where meat is present. For this purpose, beef will be preferable to pork, but lamb (preferably with a bone) will show itself best. You can use more greens than a specific recipe suggests, from the point of view of its diversity.

Ingredients:

• beef – 450 g;
• bulgur – 200 g;
• red onion;
• carrots – 150 g;
• paprika – 6 g;
• fresh parsley;
• salt;
• vegetable oil – 40 ml;
• prunes – 10 pcs..

Cooking method:

1. Pour diced beef with water (about 1.5 l), salt. Cook an hour.
2. Finely chop the onions, carrots and steamed prunes, fry with oil, using a saucepan or a very thick frying pan. Power is average so that products do not burn out in 3 minutes.
3. Add paprika, boiled pieces of meat. Cook for another 6 minutes, increasing the heat.
4. Enter the cereal last, immediately pouring there the same half-liter of broth. Quench pilaf for a quarter of an hour, serve under greens.

Bulgur with mushrooms

• Cooking time: 50 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 4 Persons.
• Calorie dishes: 2531 kcal.
• Destination: for dinner.
• Cuisine: Vegetarian.
• Difficulty: medium.

If you serve such useful meatballs on the table, which are based on bulgur – what is it and how to cook such a dish, all the guests will ask without exception. By nutrition, they do not lose at all meat, and even men will positively evaluate them. If desired, the same set of components can be served just like boiled bulgur with mushrooms and tomato paste, if you exclude an egg with flour and stew all the components for several minutes without forming meatballs.

Ingredients:

• frozen mushrooms – 200 g;
• bulgur – 300 g;
• flour – 80 g;
• milk – 40 ml;
• cloves of garlic – 4 pcs.;
• large egg;
• tomato paste – 50 g;
• tomatoes – 300 g;
• olive oil – 100 ml;
• zira, salt.

Cooking method:

1. Pour the cereal with boiling water for a quarter of an hour.
2. After squeezing slightly, add cumin, salt, tomato paste. Introduce the beaten egg, milk, mix.
3. Add flour, form balls no larger than walnuts. Flatten slightly.
4. Boil 3.5 liters of water, put meatballs there, cook until it comes up.
5. Finely chop the mushrooms, fry with grated garlic in a small amount of olive oil.
6. Add chopped tomatoes, boiled meatballs. Pour in the remaining oil and half a glass of water. Stew for another 10 minutes.