I made a thing with bulgur and vegetables and promptly forgot to take pictures

See, originally I was trying to make filled paprika. But I panicked halfway through and just ended up shoving everything in a pot instead. Made rather a lot, too - ate nothing but this stuff for three days. It's definitely more delicious the next day rather than fresh - and tastes great cold. This is definitely something that works very well for throwing in tupperware and taking with you for work/school lunch break. I bet it would also freeze well, but I haven't tried that myself.


Ingredients

  • bulgur (I went with about 300g)
  • can of tomatoes (I suppose you could use fresh ones, but why bother?)
  • paprika/bell pepper (I used one each of red, yellow, and green because that's what was in the fridge)
  • aubergine (you guys call this thing eggplant, don't you. Is that an American thing or a native speaker thing?)
  • onion (I used the other half left over from the pumpkin soup the other day)
  • garlic (I used like three cloves, but ymmv)
  • broth (I maintain that the powdered stuff is perfectly good)
  • water
  • feta cheese (or, well, I used the fake stuff made with cow's milk because it's cheaper and less of a kick in the teeth)
  • olive oil (if your savoury recipe doesn't involve olive oil ur probably doin it rong)
  • salt and pepper
  • thyme (dried, fresh, whatever)
  • rosemary
  • majoram (you could probably use other herbs, too, or none at all, but this is what the recipe I was vaguely using suggested)
  • sweet paprika powder

Appliances

  • stovetop (I guess if you're a genius with a microwave you could use that, instead)
  • knife
  • cutting board
  • can opener if your tomato can doesn't have the convenient opener thing attached
  • thing to stir with
  • Big pot with lid (I used the biggest one that was clean)
  • Water cooker (optional thing for making things faster)
  • garlic press (my girlfriends insist this was not a necessary purchase, so I guess you could also use a knife)

How To

So first you chop up that onion, throw some olive oil in your pot, and throw the onion in with that. Do the same thing with the garlic (or use that garlic press that all of you definitely have). Don't forget to stir once in a while. Also, don't forget to actually turn on the stove. I turned it on low because I knew there was still a lot of cutting things up ahead & I didn't want to have to pay too much attention to the stove so things didn't burn.

Let some water boil in the water cooker. If you don't have one of those, just ignore this step and use hot water from the tap later on when I next mention water. Or I guess you could also use cold water if you wanted.

Anyway then you chop up all the paprika and aubergine into chunks. You can add them to the pot as you go or stick them somewhere else first and then throw everything in at once.

Let that fry for a bit. Possibly add some more olive oil. Stir that shit up.

When you've gotten bored of waiting, remember that you still need to cut up the feta cheese into chunks. Rush around the kitchen doing that.

Shove the canned tomatoes in that pot. Throw the bulgur on top. Mix it up. Realise you misjudged the amounts and you're having trouble stirring without spilling things everywhere. Curse yourself when you realise you haven't even added everything yet.

Throw the feta on top. Also all the herbs and things and the broth. Stir that shit in carefully. Or if your pot isn't too small, vigorously. Top up the whole thing with that water from the water cooker (or from the tap). The consistency at this point should be that of a thick stew, probably. At least that's what worked for me. Honestly if it's too little water you can add some later, and if it's too much you can probably just cook it for longer and it'll be fine.

Put the lid on top. Leave it there for like ten minutes. Go check on it. If it's not at least fizzing a little bit, you probably need to turn up the heat. If it's bubbling a lot and making a mess everywhere despite the lid, turn down the fucking heat.

Leave that there for like another 20 minutes or so. Test a piece of aubergine and the bulgur to see if it's done. (And by test I mean put some on a spoon or something, wait for it to cool, and eat it. You probably know better than me how done you want your aubergine. If the bulgur is a little chewy that's totally fine.) If it's not, leave it for another 5-10 minutes.

Whoop whoop, you're done! Shove some'a that deliciousness in your face.