KISIR / Turkish Bulgur Salad

Kisir is a classic Turkish dish and everyone has a different way of cooking this dish.
The details change, but the main idea is the same. It's super easy and is always a crowd pleaser.

Ingredients

1 medium onion
1 cup fine bulgur
1 cup boiling water
garlic or garlic powder (optional)
1-2 table spoons of olive oil
1-2 table spoons of tomato paste
1 medium tomato
2 mini cucumbers
green onions (optional)
lettuce (optional)
lettuce cups (optional)
salt
1 lemon's juice (about 2 table spoons)
cumin, cayenne pepper, chili pepper, other spices to taste (optional)

Directions

Dice onions (the smaller the better if you have guests, I don't mind seeing my onions) and saute them in olive oil. When they soften a bit add the tomato paste and saute in low for about 10 minutes until they are soft.

While your onions are on low, pour your bulgur in a large rectangular Pyrex dish and put the boiling water on top. Add some salt to taste as well (about one teaspoon). Since we're using fine bulgur, the heat from the boiling water should be enough to cook your bulgur in about 10-15 minutes. You can cover your dish for faster cooking.

Once your bulgur looks cooked (similar to the picture on the right) add your onions and tomato paste mix and stir well with your bulgur. Now we need to wait for this mixture to cool down because we don't want our salad veggies to get soggy with the heat of bulgur and onion saute. 

Next steps are for the salad of Kisir. Dice your veggies as small as you like. I like them small, but there are really no rules except for getting the seed parts out of the tomato. You don't want your salad to be soggy with extra water that would come from the seedy parts of the tomato.

 

I put some green onions too, because I think it fits well with this salad, but they are optional. You can add shredded lettuce to this salad too, which is also optional.

Final step is once your bulgur cools down adding this salad mix to the bulgur and drizzling it with lemon juice. You can top your kisir with some cayenne pepper or chili peppers. Cumin and turmeric a are fitting spices too. I topped mine with cayenne pepper only.

Your Kisir is ready to eat! Afiyet Olsun! Enjoy!