Last Monday was my 36th birthday and a dear friend gave a wonderful gift: A Soup recipe Book, that I loved and put to good use right away. The Book is a Spanish edition of Soups, from Carole Clements (Parragon Books Ltd). Its recipes are great, easy to make and very well explained, to begin I chose a bulgur wheat (aka bulgar) soup packed with vegetables that turn out so delicious that definitely passed to our recipe “permanent collection”
I absolutely love bulgur wheat and I normally use it to make kibbeh, using a recipe from Chef in Disguise, a fabulous Middle-Eastern cuisine blog you probably already know. I found kibbeh to be such a great alternative to plain hamburgers that is a usual dish in our kitchen. I’ve also tried a delicious spinach and bulgur soup from Sitno Seckano, another great food blog. But that was as far as I went with bulgur and knowing there are so many other options out there I wanted to further explore them. Besides, bulgur is a delicious way to incorporate whole grains to our diet.
The other protagonist to this recipe is Rucola (aka salad rocket or arugula), one of my favourites green leaves. At home we eat it raw in salads, with pasta or like in today’s dish in a soup!
I think this is a very versatile recipe and you can vary the vegetables on it according to the season and I also reckon it would be very good with quinoa instead of bulgur for a different version. Besides, I like to keep it meatless at some meals and this one is a great complete satisfying dish.
Here’s the recipe, slightly adapted to my cooking stile. I hope you try it and like it at much as we did!
Servings: 4
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes in the pressure cooker* (or as much as needed to cook the bulgur and the vegetables for regular cooking, I think 30 minutes would do) + 5 minutes with no pressure.
Ingredients
- a dash of olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, pressed
- 1/3 cup bulgur wheat
- 1 small tin of whole tomatoes + their juice (400 g), roughly chopped
- 1 cup pumpkin, diced (or replace it by any other spring vegetable)
- 1 zucchini, diced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 Cayenne pods
- 1 teaspoonful of tomato paste
- dried oregano, basil and parsley to taste
- 1 liter vegetable stock
- 4 handfuls of Rucola (or as much as you want!)
- Pecorino Romano cheese to serve, shaved (you can also use Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano). Skip for vegan option.
Preparation
Heat the oil in (the pressure cooking*) pot and sauté the onion and garlic over medium heat until translucent. Add the bulgur wheat and sauté it a few minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and their juice and stir to mix. Put in the vegetables, season with salt and pepper, add the Cayenne pods and the herbs; stir to combine.
Pour the stock, bring to a boil, cover and cook for 10 minutes once full pressure was reached if using the pressure cooker* or simmer for around 30 minutes or until the bulgur and vegetables have soften for regular cooking. Once the veggies and the bulgur are done, (and the pressure has went down, of course) remove the lid, add the rucola, remove and cook for an extra 5 minutes.
*Always follow your pressure cooker instructions and manage it with due care.
Serve with cheese shaves and enjoy!
Filed under: Italian Tagged: bulgur wheat, cheap and cheerful, clean eating, healthy food, high fiber, low fat, pressure cooker, rucola, vegan option, vegetarian, whole food
