Turkish Bulgur with Roasted Aubergine & Yoghurt Sauce
Bulgur is a nutritious whole grain mainly used in Middle Eastern cuisine. It contains twice as much fibre as rice and fewer calories and fat than quinoa.
This vegetarian bulgur comes with roasted aubergine and is served with Mast-O-Khiar which is a typical Persian yoghurt-cucumber-mint sauce that adds freshness to the dish.
The bulgur works very nicely as a warm salad for BBQs, too. If you are not vegetarian and would like to add meat, I can recommend having it with lamb, beef or chicken.
Ingredients
Serves 4
Preparation time: 1 hour
2 aubergines
400 g cherry tomatoes
2 red onions
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp dried mint
1 tsp crushed chillies
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp tomato paste
20 g fresh parsley
olive oil
salt
For the Persian yoghurt-cucumber-mint sauce:
300 g greek yoghurt
1/3 cucumber (grated)
1 tbsp dried mint
1 tsp salt
Method
Preheat oven to 200 °C.
Wash 2 aubergines and cut into 2 cm sized cubes.
In a large bowl, mix aubergine with 8 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp salt. Place aubergine on middle oven rack and bake for 40 minutes.
In the meantime, peel and finely chop 2 red onions and 3 garlic cloves.
In a large frying pan with lid (or alternatively saucepan with lid), heat up 3 tbsp olive oil.
Add onions and fry for 2 minutes on medium heat. Then add garlic and fry for another 2 minutes whilst stirring occasionally. Transfer onion-garlic mix to a plate and set aside.
Cut 400 g cherry tomatoes into halves. Heat up 2 tbsp olive oil in the same pan and add tomatoes. Cook on medium-low heat for about 8 minutes until they are completely softened so you can crush them.
Mix under 2 tbsp tomato paste, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp crushed chillies, 1 tbsp dried mint. Now, transfer the onion-garlic mix back into the pan and mix all well together.
Start with this step 15 mins before the aubergine is ready: Add 400 ml boiling water and 250 g bulgur to the pan with the tomato sauce. Let simmer on low heat with the lid on for 10 minutes.
Mix under the aubergine and let soak for another 15 mins with the lid on.
Chop 20 g fresh parsley and mix under the bulgur. Add more salt if needed.
Serve bulgur with Persian yoghurt-mint-sauce. To prepare the sauce, combine 300 g greek yoghurt, 1/3 grated cucumber, 1 tbsp dried mint and 1 tsp salt.
Afiyet olsun! (“Enjoy your meal” in Turkish)
