Tuesday 1 July 2014

Bulgar wheat and roasted vegetable salad

I made this up to go with the middle eastern lamb shanks recipe as I wanted something nice and summery to go with it. You could use pretty much anything you want in any measure, including carb, so feel free to substitute rice or couscous but I like the wholegrain taste of the bulgar wheat.  The only thing you really need to do is to include a mix of roasted veg and traditional salad veg.  It was an instant hit and a number of folks have asked if I'm putting up the recipe, so here it is... enjoy :-) This will easily serve 8 but keeps in the 'fridge for 2-3 days and goes with any grilled meat or fish. If you want to just have it on it's own you can add some cubes of feta cheese to bump up the protein.


Ingredients
150-200g bulgar wheat
1 handful broad beans
1 handful peas
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red pepper1 yellow pepper
1 aubergine
3 good size tomatoes
2 courgettes
1 corn on the cob
6 radishes
1 bunch spring onions
75g feta cheese (optional)
The juice of ½ a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
First prepare the bulgar wheat. Measure the wheat into a cup or measuring jug, add it to a saucepan and then add 5½ times the volume of boiling water and a good pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and keep on a rolling boil for 15 minutes. When the wheat is cooked, drain in a sieve and leave to cool.

Prepare the beans and peas by shelling them (you can use frozen if you like) and then add them to boiling water, bring to the boil and cook for no more than 2 minutes. Drain them and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.

While the bulgar wheat is cooking and cooling, prepare the roasted veg. I tend to fry them rather than cook in the oven as I have a griddle pan, but you can do either. De seed the peppers and cut into bite size pieces. Slice the aubergine and tomatoes 1½cm thick. Now heat a small amount of olive oil in the griddle pan until smoking and add the sliced pepper, aubergine and tomato (or spread on a non-stick baking sheet if using the oven and heat the oven to 200°ree;C), add a little salt and brown on each side, adding a little extra oil if needed.  The aubergine should be done last as it will absorb all the oil. Don't be tempted to use too much oil as this will make the whole dish greasy, try and use as little as possible - we're aiming for "fresh"!

To prepare the courgette, top and tail them and then using a potato peeler or mandolin slice them really finely then add a little salt and pepper to them. Cook them by adding them to the pan used for the other vegetables and be careful as they will cook quickly and go from raw to burnt so don't be tempted to take your eyes off them.

To cook the corn on the cob, again use the same pan and brown the cob on all sides b(this will take some time). Once it's cooked, leave to cool so you can handle it then top and tail the cob and slice off the corn from the core.

Prepare the radishes, spring onion and feta by slicing or cutting them to your preference (I'd suggest disks for the radish and spring onion and ½cm chunks for the feta).

Finally, mix everything together, add the juice of half a lemon and salt and pepper to taste and serve warm or cold.

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