EgglessCooking.com | Eggless Recipes | Eggless Baking » carrots

Bulgur Upma ~ An Indo-American Fusion

Madhuram — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:33:45 +0000

I love trying Indian recipes using American ingredients. Zucchini Kootu, Zucchini Pappu, Grits Adai, Grits Idli were few successful ones. To this list I can now add bulgur upma too. Many people confuse bulgur with cracked wheat. The terms are used interchangeably in many places, but they both are not the same. Broken wheat and cracked wheat are the same but not bulgur and cracked wheat. I’ve discussed it in detail in the vegetarian chili recipe. Check it out.

I had some bulgur lying in the freezer and wanted to finish it. Tabouli is “the” recipe when it comes to bulgur. I was not in the mood for a salad and also I wanted to use the bits and pieces of vegetables lying in the fridge before refilling it. So I decided to make an Indianized version of tabouli, which is nothing but upma. Just like making cracked wheat upma, I thought I would prepare bulgur upma. Let me tell you this is so much easier and tastier than cracked wheat upma. We liked the chewy texture of bulgur and it was filling too. I also see that bulgur has more fiber than brown rice. Another bonus, bulgur can feed a crowd. Also it tastes even better the day after it is cooked. It soaks up the flavor of the vegetables and tastes very good.

Ingredients

Bulgur, dry 1 cup

Boiling Water 1 cup

Oil 2 teaspoons

Mustard seeds 1/4 teaspoon

Urad daal 1 teaspoon

Channa daal 1 teaspoon

Peanuts (optional) 1/4 cup

Onion, medium, chopped finely 1

Green Chili 1 big

Potato, medium, diced 1

Beans, chopped 1 cup

Peas 1 cup

Carrots, diced 1 cup

Salt as needed

Cilantro, finely chopped 1/4 cup

Yield: Serves at least 3-4 adults.

Procedure 1 In a bowl add the bulgur wheat, boiling water and little salt. Stir it thoroughly and leave it until all the water is absorbed. It may take about 45 minutes.

2 Meanwhile in a big frying pan add the oil and heat it. Once it is hot enough add the mustard seeds. After it splutters add the peanuts (if using) and roast it. Then add the urad daal and channa daal and fry it until golden brown.

3 Add the chopped onions and slit green chili. Add little salt, so that the onion would cook faster.

4 Once the onions are cooked add the other vegetables, 1/2 cup (or more) water as required, salt and close the pan with a lid. Increase the heat and in about 10-15 minutes the vegetables would have cooked enough.

5 To the cooked vegetables mixture add the prepared bulgur and combine it well. Garnish it with cilantro and it’s ready to dig in.

My Notes 1 If adding peanuts, it’s preferable to add it first after the mustard seeds splutter. Since it takes some time to roast, if it’s added after the urad daal and channa daal, by the time it turns brown the other daals would get burnt.

2 This bulgur upma is good both hot or cold. I had some leftover which I kept it in the fridge. It tasted so good (or even better) the next day, even straight from the fridge.

3 Bulgur before soaking may look very less but after it absorbs the water and especially with so much vegetables it makes huge quantity. You can really feed an army. Try it when you are having a potluck or friends over. When I first measured 1 cup of bulgur, I thought it would not be enough for the 2 of us. Usually I use 1 and 3/4th cups of vermicilli or cracked wheat for preparing upma. So I measured another 3/4th cup of bulgur to prepare this upma. Gosh! that was so much for us. So I did not add the entire bulgur to the cooked vegetables. I reserved some for later. Luckily I got another idea to make use of the excess bulgur. That dish turned out very good too. Will post it later.

4 Next I want to cook pulav using bulgur. I’m sure it would taste equally good.

This bulgur upma goes to Roma’s JFI-Wheat. JFI originally started by Indira.

Red Lentil and Vegetable Soup

Madhuram — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:34:37 +0000

I found this recipe in the “Good Housekeeping” magazine. This recipe was featured under Heart Smart Dinners and Healthy in a Hurry category. With 16gms protein, 13gms fiber, 0mg cholesterol and just 1gm saturated fat per serving, it’s definitely heart healthy. Added bonus, very tasty and easy to prepare too.

I reduced the quantity of ingredients. Even then it was a lot of soup for the 2 of us. I have another serving left for tomorrow. Check the original recipe for actual quantities and detailed nutritional information.

Ingredients:
Olive oil – 1 tablespoon
Carrots, medium, chopped – 3
Onion, small, chopped – 1
Ground Cumin – 1 teaspoon
Canned diced tomatoes (14.5 oz) – 1 can (I didn’t have this, so used crushed tomatoes)
Vegetable broth (14.5 oz) – 1 can
Dried red lentils (masoor daal) – 3/4th of a cup
Baby Spinach (5 oz bag) – 1 (I used frozen spinach)
Salt – as per taste
Ground black pepper – as per taste
Grated ginger (this was not mentioned in the original recipe, but I chose to use it because red lentils especially has the reputation to cause gas)

Procedure:
1. In a saucepan heat oil and add carrots, onion and cook until lightly browned and tender. Stir in cumin; cook 1 minute.

2. Add tomatoes, broth, lentils, 2 cups of water salt, ground black pepper cover and cook until lentils are tender. Stir in spinach.

My Notes:
1. I soaked the lentils before starting to chop the vegetables. I did this because I thought that this will reduce the cooking time and it did. Later only I came to know that soaking the lentils and throwing away the water and then using the lentils aids in easy digestion. Just be sure to throw away the soaking water. Enjoy!

Barley With Spiced Yogurt – Your Recipe Rocks!

Madhuram — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:47:03 +0000

Happy Mother’s Day!

Yesterday we had lunch in an Indian Restaurant. Whenever we have lunch buffet, the following evening, we just have either oatmeal, cracked wheat kanji (porridge) or plain yogurt rice for dinner. This time I wanted to try something else and was browsing Jai and Bee’s blog. I’m very glad I did that, because I found an excellent recipe for Barley Thayirchadam. It’s pretty much the regular South Indian yogurt rice, but prepared with barley instead. This was totally new to me. I use barley only in soups. My husband is a big fan of barley. Whenever I make soup he keeps telling that I should have increased the quantity of barley. So I wanted to try this recipe atleast for his sake.

The beauty of this recipe is it has 2 uses. With the pressure cooked barley we can prepare the main dish and with the excess water we can prepare a refreshing lemonade. Jai and Bee had used 1 cup of pearl barley in their recipe. I thought I will try with half a cup. When I measured the barley I had, there was only 3/4th of a cup left in the packet, so I decided to cook it. The taste was excellent. It was a very satisfying meal. This measurement was perfect for both of us. Half a cup would have been less and 1 cup would have been more.

My Notes:
1. I cooked the barley directly in a small copper bottomed pressure cooker and left it for 3 whistles.

2. Whenever I prepare curd rice, I cut a maavadu (south indian style mango pickle, where small mangoes are pickled as a whole without cutting them) into small pieces and mix it with the rice along with the carrots and cucumber. Since my husband doesn’t eat anything spicy, I lightly wash the maavadu and then cut it. This gives a nice surprising crunch and tanginess. So I did the same with this recipe.

3. I also prepared the barley lemonade. In addition to the ingredients mentioned, I also added grated ginger. I kept it in the fridge overnight, so that the lemonade would absorb the flavors of the lemon zest and grated ginger. The next day morning I strained the juice before drinking. It was so cool and refreshing. I think people in India should definitely try it this summer.

Thank you very much for the recipe Jai and Bee. This is going to be a regular in our house. Your recipe rocks!