Bulgur Pilaf

One of these dishes that is great news when you have a little bit of everything that needs to be used. In other words – I have added carrots, as I had a few carrot sticks left over from a snack but they are not necessary. My recipe is based on what I had – but really – you can add anything. It doesn’t matter if the tomatoes, capsicum or whatever you use is a bit wrinkled…or the carrots for that matter a bit dry. It is all good when cooked.

If you have some left over meat – chicken, beef, lamb, pork…it doesn’t matter, you could easily chop it up and add this to the dish as well.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup coarse bulgur

2 1/4 cups water

2 medium sized onions

2 cloves garlic

a few spring onions

2 capsicum (I had a yellow and a red…green could do as well)

1 1/2 tbsp. tomato paste/puree

6 smaller tomatoes or two large ones

2 stalks of celery

1 carrot

a good handful of fresh mint

1/4 cup olive oil or canola oil

salt and pepper

Method:

Prepare your vegetables. Finely chop garlic and onion and set aside in a bowl. Rinse and dice the tomatoes and set aside in a bowl. Rinse and finely chop celery, spring onion, carrot and tomatoes and set aside in another separate bowl. Finely chop capsicum and set aside in a third bowl.

Roughly chop fresh mint and set aside.

Rinse your bulgur in cold water, drain and set aside.

Add oil to a frying pan or a wok. Add the onions and garlic and fry until golden. Add the tomato paste and diced tomatoes and cook along for a few minutes. Add celery, spring onion and carrots. Stir and Fry for another few minutes. Add rinsed bulgur together with 2 1/4 cup of water. Let the bulgur simmer while stirring occasionally. Let it simmer until the water has been soaked up by the bulgur. Add the capsicum, mint and salt and pepper to taste and let it simmer for another 5 minutes.

That is it! Serve in a dish and top it with a few leaves of whole mint. Looks and tastes wonderful.