Kisir - Turkish Bulgar salad
Turkey's favourite salad! It's so famous they consider it their national dish. Kisir is a hearty, healthy and delicious recipe. It’s full of flavour and infinitely customizable however your family likes it! I like to eat it on its own with a spoon, with lettuce leaves or as a starchy side with chicken or beef.
Ingredients
Bulgur:
- 1 cups fine #1 bulgur
- 1,5 cups hot water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Salad Ingredients:
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 ½ tablespoon Biber Salçasi Turkish pepper paste
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried mint
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 4 green onions finely diced
- 2 to matoes finely diced
- 2 mini cucumbers finely diced (½ English cucumber)
- ½ cup parsley finely chopped
- Pomegranate molasses. as needed
- 2 tablespoon dill finely chopped optional
- 2 tablespoon fresh mint finely chopped (optional)
- lemon optional
Instructions
- Toast. In a medium-sized pot (3.5qt) over medium-high heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, allow to heat up, then add the bulgur and toast the grain for 2-3 minutes. You'll notice a nutty smell coming from the grains.
- Add the liquid. Add hot water and salt to the pot of bulgur. The water will sizzle at this point, be careful. The grains will quickly soak up the liquid. Give it 2 minutes to bloom and stir the pot.
- Kill the heat. Leave the pot on the hot element. The bulgur will soak up all the water. Keep the pot covered and allow the bulgur to rest 10 minutes. ⏤ The bulgur will continue to cook in the residual heat.
- Meanwhile, gather and prepare all your salad ingredients, put them aside for use once the bulgur is done.
- Let's fluff! Open the lid, get your fork it's time to fluff the bulgur.
- Prepare the salad. Add the cooked bulgur to a large bowl, use a spoon to mix the tomato paste, Biber Salçasi, spices, and olive oil in the bulgur and you may need to allow it to cool a bit Then, add the tomatoes, parsley, green onions, & cucumbers. Now, message all the ingredients together with your hands.
- Let it rest! If you wish. The salad definitely benefits with a little rest time, but it's optional. You can dig right in if you can't wait.
- You're done! Time to serve, add to some lettuce leaves give a squirt of lemon juice and a drizzle of pomegranate molasses. Enjoy! You eat it with a spoon, but don't leave out the lemon and pomegranate molasses.⏤It's the best part 😍!
Notes
Alternatively: You can mix everything together in the bowl all at once, the third testing of this recipe, I found adding the tomato paste, Biber Salçasi, and oil to the hot bulgur brought out more of the umami flavour of the tomato paste and Biber Salçasi.