Wheat Salad with Feta Cheese and Basil

Bulghur is a widely used grain made from drum wheat. I will explain how bulghur have been made traditionally and still in the small villages farmers use the same technique to make bulgur from their home grown corps. First they boil the drum wheat and sun-dry it. Then the drum wheat can be broken into pieces with a very primitive machine featuring a heavy cylinder shaped stone rolling over the wheat. Or more labor intensive way could be using an old style mortar the wheat can be broken into pieces by using little water and repetitively crushing it in the mortar. The grade of the bulghur depends on how long you beat or rolled over the wheat. This process is now industrialised but still small farmers use the old fashion way of producing bulghur.

So here is what wikipedia says about the nutrition facts of 1 cup bulghur;

• Energy: 2003 kJ (479 kcal)
• Dietary fiber: 25.6 g
• Protein: 17.21 g
• Carbohydrate: 69 g whereof 0.8 g sugars
• Fat: 1.86 g whereof 0.2 g saturated fat
• Potassium: 574 mg
• Iron: 3.44 mg

• Glycemic Index: 46

In Turkey we have two different grades of bulghur. The one with smaller size called 'ince bulgur' it doesn't need to be properly cooked and it has been used with many different dishes. The regular sized bulghur have been used in pilav which is rice made with bulghur instead of rice (i dont know if it makes any sense but a well made bulghur pilav is very tasty). The regular sized bulghur has also been used in cold soups, even in stuffed vegetables or stuffed grape leaves. We currently have excessive amount of bulghur at home and we never really use it. So i decided to search for a nice recipe to make use of bulghur and found the bulghur salad with herbs recipe from BBC's recipes. Here is how i did it,

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Bulghur Wheat
• 2 Cups Water
• 2 Branches Fresh Rosemary
• 4 Branches Fresh Basil
• 9 branches Fresh Mint
• 300 gr Cherry-tomatoes
• 200 gr Feta Cheese
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1. Put the bulghur wheat, rosemarries, salt, and water in one pot and bring the stove to boil.
2. Wash and towel dry the basil and mint then finely chop the two herbs.
3. Dice the feta cheese
4. When the bulghur is drained the whole water in the pot fish out the rosemary.
5. Combine the herbs, cherry tomatoes, feta chesee, bulghur, and olive oil in a bowl.
6. When serving you can use some reserved feta and basil to make it look pretty.