Bulgur itself is a cereal that is easy to prepare, and you can cook bulgur as just porridge as a side dish, or with vegetables, meat, or in general, with meat and vegetables. Today I will cook bulgur with chicken, onions and carrots. At the end we get a second course, hearty and very, very tasty (if you like bulgur itself, of course).

First, prepare everything you need for the recipe, namely: bulgur, water, sunflower oil, chicken, onions, carrots, salt, a little butter and fresh herbs.

If you have noticed, the ingredients indicate the amount of bulgur not in grams, but in milliliters. This is because you need to take two parts of liquid for one part of the cereal, then the bulgur will end up crumbly! And that’s how I always measure it. So now I took 2 glasses of 160 ml of bulgur and, accordingly, 4 of the same glasses of water. But first things first...

Cut the chicken into small pieces and lightly fry in sunflower oil. Chop the onion and carrots (small cubes).

Add the vegetables to the chicken and fry everything together over high heat. Rinse the bulgur.

Place the bulgur and chicken fried with onions and carrots in a bowl with thick walls (for example, the one in which you usually cook pilaf).

Add salt to taste, pour in hot water.

After the water boils, cook the bulgur over low heat for 20 minutes, turn off the stove, add butter to the bulgur and leave for another 10 minutes, covered with a towel. In the end, this is what we get.

Bulgur, or Mediterranean rice, has become quite popular, especially among people who adhere to a healthy and healthy diet. And this is not surprising, since this cereal contains many useful substances.

In addition, it consists of “slow” carbohydrates, which does not lead to intensive fat deposition.

When cooked, cereals are difficult to boil and do not lose nutrients. It goes perfectly with vegetables, meat and herbs. We present to your attention various recipes for preparing bulgur with vegetables.

Step by step recipe

Preparing this dish will not take the housewife much time, and will also delight you with its simplicity and low calorie content.

How to cook bulgur with vegetables:

When serving, you can decorate the dish with herbs.

Recipe for making bulgur with meat and vegetables

The cereal is excellent for any type of meat. The food turns out tasty and quite filling.

Cooking time: 90 min.

Calorie content – 381 kcal.

Step by step recipe:

Cut the meat into small pieces and fry it in a frying pan until an appetizing crust appears.
Wash and peel the vegetables thoroughly.
Cut the onion into half rings, the carrot into strips, and the pepper into strips. First, fry the onions and carrots, and then add the pepper.
Place the fried vegetables and pork in a saucepan, fill them with water and simmer for about an hour.
Grate the tomato, add spices and chopped garlic. They need to be added to the pan with meat and vegetables. Add salt.
Pour in the bulgur and add water to get a 1:2 ratio.
Cook for 15 minutes with the lid uncovered until the cereal softens.
When serving, decorate the dish with herbs.

You don't have to use pork to prepare it. Lamb on the bone also gives the food an excellent rich taste.

Bulgur with vegetables and chicken

This dish is great for a quick lunch or dinner. The housewife will certainly be pleased that cooking does not take much time, and the result is aromatic and very tasty food.

Cooking time – 1/2 hour.

The number of calories per 100 g is 216 kcal.

Step by step recipe:

Cut the pepper into cubes, and chop the onion and garlic. Cut the carrots into cubes.
Sliced chicken fillet is fried in vegetable oil until an appetizing crust begins to appear.
Sauté the onion, carrot and pepper for about 10 minutes.
Pour the bulgur into the frying pan with the vegetables. Mix thoroughly and add spices and garlic.
Place tomato paste in a frying pan and fry for another 1 minute.
Water pours in. Salt and add fried chicken fillet.
Bring the dish to a boil, after which it must be kept on low heat for approximately 20 minutes for the bulgar to cook.

When serving bulgur with vegetables and chicken, garnish with herbs.

Bulgur with vegetables in a slow cooker

The dish prepared in a slow cooker turns out aromatic and crumbly. In addition, the cooking process will not take much time from the housewife.

Cooking time: approximately 70 minutes.

The calorie content of the dish per 100 g is 350 kcal.

Step by step recipe:

Vegetables must be washed thoroughly. Peel the onions and carrots.
Coarsely grate the carrots, chop the onion, and cut the pepper into cubes.
Sunflower oil is placed in the bowl of the device and the “Frying” or “Baking” mode is turned on.
Add chopped peppers, carrots and onions, fry them for 15 minutes without closing the lid. Don't forget to mix the vegetables well.
Wash the bulgur thoroughly.
Then add water and bring it to a boil.
We change the program from “Frying” to “Porridge”. Add cereal and salt to taste. Mix well, then cook for approximately 20 minutes with the lid closed.

Before serving, decorate the dish with herbs.

How to prepare bulgur salad with vegetables

This salad turns out tasty and dietary. It can be served as a separate dish or as a side dish.

Cooking time – 25 minutes.

Calorie content per 100 g of dish is 105 kcal.

Step by step recipe:

The cereal is washed well and poured with boiling water. At the same time, try to keep the water level 1 cm above the bulgur. Let the cereal swell for about 20 minutes, covering the pan with a lid.
The tomatoes are cut into cubes, the cilantro and onion are chopped.
Place the prepared cereal in a salad bowl and add onion and coriander to it. Mix the mixture thoroughly.
Tomatoes are placed in a salad bowl. Add salt and spices. Season with oil and lime juice and mix well.

Let the salad sit for about 10 minutes so that the bulgur is saturated with juice and oil.

Pilaf with bulgur and lamb

This is a traditional Turkish dish. Although the housewife will have to tinker with the pilaf, it turns out nourishing, tasty and surprisingly aromatic.

Cooking time: 80 minutes.

The number of calories is 550 kcal per 100 g of dish.

Cooking recipe step by step:

The chickpeas are pre-soaked for 12 hours.
The meat is thoroughly washed and cut into small pieces, removing excess fat.
Fry the cracklings in a cauldron, then add the lamb and fry until a crust appears.
Wash and peel the onions and carrots and chop them.
Add vegetables, chickpeas, and hot pepper rings to the lamb. Pepper and salt.
Simmer for about half an hour, covering with a lid and without stirring.
The head of garlic is peeled and placed entirely in a cauldron.
Pour bulgur into the container, and then add water so that the liquid reaches the level of 2 fingers folded together.
Simmer for half an hour without stirring over low heat.

When serving, spices are added, for example, turmeric or barberry.

To prepare soup, experienced chefs and nutritionists recommend using coarsely ground grains and finely ground grains for side dishes.
Before cooking, it is advisable to fry the bulgur a little in a pan with oil. This will give the dish a “nutty” aroma.
For frying, butter, ghee or olive oil is used.
To prepare cereals, add water so that they are in a 1:2 ratio. This way the liquid will be completely absorbed into the cereal.
Cooking time for bulgur is approximately 20 minutes. Try not to overcook it, otherwise it will lose its taste and aroma.
Dishes made from this grain turn out more flavorful and soft when cooked in a slow cooker.
When preparing a salad, the grain does not need to be cooked. To do this, just leave the bulgur in water, where it will swell.
Cereals should be stored away from direct sunlight and high humidity. It is recommended to use airtight glass containers.

Bulgur with vegetables is perfect for people who lead a healthy lifestyle and maintain proper nutrition, due to the content of valuable vitamins and microelements.

There are many recipes that include this cereal. These dishes have excellent taste and aroma. They are served both as a main dish and a side dish.

Everything new scares us and raises doubts. But it is precisely doubts that force you to try something new. This perception is especially characteristic of us in relation to new products or new dishes. It happens that a long time passes before we take a risk and try something new, and then we are surprised and annoyed that we did not do it sooner.

It’s just that a person, nevertheless, is to some extent attached to his habits, to his way of life and, no less, attached to the familiar dishes that make up his daily diet. And when some new product comes into his field of vision, he instinctively dodges it, since this product requires, as they say, more careful attention and it is far from a fact that it will be tasty. For many people, such a product is, for example, unfamiliar cereals.

For example, bulgur (a dish from the countries of the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Balkans), which I want to talk about today, is not widely popular in our latitudes precisely because its beneficial properties are little known. It will be enough that bulgur porridge can easily replace any vitamin complex, since it contains a wide range of B vitamins, as well as phosphorus and iron. So, today we will cook bulgur with vegetables or Turkish pilaf.

step-by-step photo recipe for making Turkish pilaf

Ingredients:

bulgur – 1 cup,
onions – 2 pieces,
large carrots - 1 piece,
1-2 tomatoes,
tomato paste – 2 tablespoons;
spices, salt to taste,
sunflower or olive oil for frying.

Cooking process:

First of all, finely chop two onions and place in a frying pan.

After this, grate the carrots on a coarse grater and mix it with chopped onions. Fry the resulting mixture until soft. Now add a tomato cut into longitudinal slices (a bell pepper would also come in handy). Fry the resulting assorted vegetables again, be sure to stir them by adding tomato paste.

Now that the vegetable part is ready, it's time to add the bulgur. It does not need to be rinsed like some other grains. This is its significant advantage over rice used in the classic pilaf recipe.

After adding the cereal, fill everything with water so that the liquid covers the surface of the dish by 2-3 centimeters.

Now all that remains is to cook the bulgur with vegetables under the lid, not forgetting to stir the contents of the pan several times. When the dish has absorbed all the water, this will signal its readiness.

This pilaf without meat is served with fresh herbs. Ideal for a Lenten table!

In addition, bulgur will be an excellent side dish for meat or fish.

This nutritious porridge is perfect for those who like to eat hearty food and people who watch their nutrition and follow a diet. In this sense, vegetable bulgur is a unique dish in its own way.

Eat healthy foods, don't be afraid to try new dishes and expand your culinary horizons. Bon appetit!

Jamila prepared bulgur especially for Good Recipes

You can prepare homemade pilaf or a side dish with vegetables without using rice. For example, a homemade side dish or pilaf - bulgur with vegetables - is easy to prepare, and according to the same principle as any crumbly side dish based on cereals. But in the preparation of these dishes there are some subtleties that must be taken into account.

Bulgur wheat grains are dried wheat grains, pre-treated with steam or boiling water and crushed. Cereals are very popular in the East, Asia, and Mediterranean countries. There are mentions in the Bible and on Assyrian tablets, although it probably has an even older history, at least 8 thousand years.

Often this cereal is confused with ordinary crushed wheat, not treated with steam or water, or even with couscous - all of them are the most important component of an oriental salad. By and large, all these cereals are derivatives of ordinary wheat grain. But the technology of preparation and processing is completely different, as is the purpose of the cereal and the method of cooking it. For example, it is unlikely that you can cook pilaf from couscous, but it turns out to be an excellent side dish for tender dishes in a thick sauce.

In subsistence farming, ripened wheat grains are sorted by hand, then boiled in boiling water and dried naturally for several days, with periodic mixing of the grain. The grains darken and wrinkle. After hulling, the grain is re-dried and aerated to separate the husks. And only after this the wheat is manually crushed using stone millstones. Next, sifting through a sieve separates several fractions of bulgur according to size. It is believed that due to the characteristics of grinding and sifting, all fractions have not only different sizes, but also different tastes.

In industrial production, cereals are mass produced in factory workshops, and this displaces the manual production of bulgur. Which, however, does not always affect the quality of the product.

You can find whole grains - not crushed grains. It is used to prepare stuffed vegetables, pilaf and soups; with it, a bulgur dish with vegetables will turn out excellent. Coarsely crushed - ideal for pilaf or crumbly side dishes. Common for pilaf - the name speaks for itself. Small - pilaf, salads, and other vegetables. There is also a very small one for kufta, dark. However, in the East, most likely, the classification of bulgur is more complex.

When planning to prepare a side dish or pilaf - bulgur with vegetables, you need to adopt some simple cooking rules. Bulgur, taking into account its pre-treatment with water or steam, is boiled for approximately 20 minutes with water in the ratio of one volume part of the cereal to two parts of water. Everything is exactly the same as for most varieties of rice. And yet, it must be fried without rinsing with water.

Bulgur with vegetables. Step by step recipe

Ingredients (2 servings)

Bulgur large or whole 1 glass
Boiled forest mushrooms or champignons 5-6 pcs
Onion 1 piece
Carrot 1 piece
Parsnip 0.5 pcs
Garlic 1 head
Butter 50 g
Tomato 1 piece
Mixed greens (dill, parsley, cilantro) 5-6 branches
Salt, black pepper, allspice, hot red pepper Spices

If you decide to cook bulgur with vegetables, you should choose coarsely crushed grains or, if available, whole grains. Such cereals are now sold in stores, although it is difficult to understand from the labeling what fraction of the cereal is in the package. It is ideal to see the cereal with your own eyes before choosing. There is no need to rinse the grain; the bulgur is already washed and dried during production.
Coarsely crushed bulgur
Prepare some pre-boiled wild mushrooms or regular champignons for the dish. Be sure to easily squeeze out any excess liquid from the mushrooms. Chop the mushrooms coarsely or, if they are not very large, leave them whole. Peel the onion and roots. Disassemble the garlic into cloves without peeling the shells.
Vegetables, mushrooms for the dish
Cut carrots and parsnips into large cubes. Melt butter in a saucepan. Fry the chopped vegetables over medium heat until soft, this will take 5-6 minutes. Be sure to stir the vegetables, as butter tends to fry the vegetables too quickly and they may start to burn.
Fry chopped vegetables until soft
Add coarsely chopped onion and unpeeled garlic cloves. Fry all the vegetables, stirring frequently, until the onion begins to change color to golden.
Add chopped onion and garlic cloves
Add chopped mushrooms and fry them with vegetables for 2-3 minutes. It is important that the mushrooms do not release a lot of liquid during frying.
Add chopped mushrooms and fry them
Add cereal and mix. If there is very little oil in a frying pan with vegetables, the vegetables can absorb the oil like a sponge, especially parsnips, you should add 1 tbsp. l. extra butter. The bulgur needs to be fried. This will slightly shorten the cooking time of the cereal and make the bulgur with vegetables homogeneous and more crumbly. You don’t need to fry the cereal with vegetables for long, literally 1-2 minutes, stirring.
Add cereal and mix
Next, the bulgur with vegetables should be poured with boiling water or mushroom broth left after boiling the mushrooms. Salt the dish with 1-2 pinches of salt, pepper and add 1-2 flattened allspice peas. It is usually advised to add water twice as much as the amount of cereal used. Considering that we want the bulgur with vegetables to be more crumbly, we should take a little less water, about one and a half glasses of water per glass of cereal. If necessary, you can add a little boiling liquid if it is not enough.
Fry with vegetables
It is often written that you don’t need to cook bulgur, just pour boiling water over it and keep it warm. This applies to highly crushed cereals, while large pieces are difficult to cook without cooking.
Add water and cook the cereal until cooked
Cook the bulgur with vegetables, covered, over the lowest heat possible. Cereals quite actively absorb water, significantly increasing in volume. When the bulgur has absorbed almost all the liquid, it must be mixed and placed in a heap in a saucepan. In this form, the cereal should be heated in water vapor so that there is no sign of liquid left and the bulgur becomes crumbly. You can remove the saucepan from the heat and wrap it in a cotton blanket, leaving it to warm for 10-15 minutes.
When the bulgur has absorbed almost all the liquid, it must be stirred
Scald a ripe tomato with boiling water, remove seeds and skin. Cut the tomato pulp into cubes. Remove the leaves from the sprigs of greenery and chop them with a knife. Mix greens and tomato pulp. When the bulgur with vegetables is ready, mix it with the addition of tomatoes and herbs, optionally sprinkle with a pinch of ground red pepper and stir.

Bulgur with carrots and onions rich in vitamins and minerals such as: vitamin A - 67.1%, beta-carotene - 72.5%, vitamin E - 13%, magnesium - 12.8%, phosphorus - 12.4%, manganese - 32.8 %

Benefits of Bulgur with carrots and onions

Vitamin A responsible for normal development, reproductive function, skin and eye health, and maintaining immunity.
B-carotene is provitamin A and has antioxidant properties. 6 mcg of beta carotene is equivalent to 1 mcg of vitamin A.
Vitamin E has antioxidant properties, is necessary for the functioning of the gonads and heart muscle, and is a universal stabilizer of cell membranes. With vitamin E deficiency, hemolysis of erythrocytes and neurological disorders are observed.
Magnesium participates in energy metabolism, synthesis of proteins, nucleic acids, has a stabilizing effect on membranes, and is necessary to maintain homeostasis of calcium, potassium and sodium. A lack of magnesium leads to hypomagnesemia, an increased risk of developing hypertension and heart disease.
Phosphorus takes part in many physiological processes, including energy metabolism, regulates acid-base balance, is part of phospholipids, nucleotides and nucleic acids, and is necessary for the mineralization of bones and teeth. Deficiency leads to anorexia, anemia, and rickets.
Manganese participates in the formation of bone and connective tissue, is part of enzymes involved in the metabolism of amino acids, carbohydrates, catecholamines; necessary for the synthesis of cholesterol and nucleotides. Insufficient consumption is accompanied by slower growth, disturbances in the reproductive system, increased fragility of bone tissue, and disturbances in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism.

still hide

You can see a complete guide to the most useful products in the appendix.