I don't want to eat barley...and bulgur?

A day after our Istanbul Cooking School class, we were relaxing at an outside table at a casual neighborhood restaurant about to enjoy dinner.  I saw they had a daily special for 15TL that had a soup, side, main, and drink.  This specific menu didn't involve choosing anything except the drink as everything was the daily special.

This was the side dish.

I offered some up to Laura, but she told me she didn't want to eat barley.  That really confused me as I can't remember the last time I ate barley.  I thought...I don't want to eat barley either.  I sure hope this isn't barley.  Barley usually comes too firm for my taste preference.

My educated guess was that this was bulgur given we had been to cooking class the day before and one of the dishes we cooked was kisir, cracked wheat salad, made with finely ground bulgur.  I assumed this was coarser bulgur.  You may be familiar with bulgur from tabbouleh which is made of bulgur, cucumber, and tomatoes.  After going to Peru last year, I got very convinced that quinoa tastes great and is healthier than potatoes, rice, and bread.  My problem with quinoa is that it is difficult to cook / I am too lazy to cook it.

In cooking class, we learned that to cook bulgur, you just throw it in a bowl with bowling water and let it steam on its own for 15-30 minutes.  At that point you fluff the cooked grains and you have some nice fluffy bulgur to use.  

Bulgur, a whole grain, is very comparable to quinoa in its positive nutrition benefits.  It is high in fiber and protein.  It has around half the calories of quinoa for the same cooked volume.  For more detail, see here http://www.livestrong.com/article/554143-nutrition-of-bulgur-vs-quinoa/

Bulgur tastes great.  In my opinion, the fine ground version tastes like couscous and the coarser version tastes similar to rice.

Oguz, the friendly and informative instructor/owner, of Istanbul Cooking School was kind enough to let me share their kisir, cracked wheat salad, recipe with you.  Go buy yourself some bulgur and make this salad.  It's healthy.  Let me know what you think.

I ordered the pomegranate syrup/molasses off Amazon, but I am sure you can find it in an ethnic grocery store.

KISIR – CRACKED WHEAT SALAD (Serves 4 people)

2 cups of fine cracked wheat (bulgur)

½ cups of olive oil

2 onions

4 pieces of spring onions

3 tomatoes, peeled and diced

4 peppers

1 tbsp of tomato paste

2 lemon

1 bunch of parsley

2 teespoon of salt

2 teespoon of red pepper

2 teespoon of cumin

2 teespoon of sumac

3-4 tbsp of pomegranate syrup

Fresh or dried mint, 2 teaspoon

1)  Put the wheat in a bowl and pour hot boiling water (app 0,80 cups of boiling water for 1 cup of wheat). Close the bowl tightly and let it rest untill all the water is absorbed and the wheat expands, ~½ hour.

2) Chop the onions in small pieces and cook them with 1-2 tbsp of oil untill they get glasy. Add the pepper mark and cook till the mark is cooked overall well.

3) Chop all the vegetables in small pieces. Put them all together with the wheat and the spices and mix well.

4)  Add the oil and the lemon juice and the pomegranate syrup according to your taste. Serve with lettuce leaves.

5) Add fresh mint

(There may be some spelling abnormalities in translation as I am copying and pasting...)