Turkish Kisir

The perks of living with a girl from Istanbul as flatmate: I’m getting to know her culture and most importantly of course the incredibly good Turkish food in a very authentic and beautiful way. Almost every day I’m learning about new traditional dishes and recipes. Since a trip to Istanbul 2 years ago I was already really into Turkish food and especially their ‘mezze’ lifestyle, which consist in having meals together with your friends or family and ordering  lots  of different starters and dishes and sharing them all together – the best way to enjoy food, right?! But thanks to my Turkish flatmate, I’ve gotten to love this food even more. I’m one lucky girl, I know 😉

But I want to share my luck with you! Therefore this is the recipe of my current favourite Turkish dish – KISIR! It is a bulgur salad with cucumber, tomatoes and pomegranate jewels. The loads of mint, dill and parsley give it a wonderful freshness. As contrast, it includes fried onions, spiced with a slightly hot pepper paste, giving the dish a really nice depth. And the game changer is definitely the pomegranate syrup adding this kick of sweet- and sourness at the same time. But make sure, to get proper unsweetened syrup at a Turkish market, because it is so different to the artificial, sugary one you get in the supermarkets for cocktails.

As it includes carbs from the couscous, good fats from the olive oil and fibre form the veggies and herbs Kisir is a complete dish on its own! But this salad will also make a wonderful side dish for your steak or fish filet, now that grill season is starting. Furthermore, it’ll still taste really good the day afterwards, what makes it the perfect dish to take to university or work if you have leftovers.

I guess I’ve made clear, that if you haven’t tried this killer dish yet, you’re definitely missing out! So I hope the Turkish market is already on the to-do list for tmrw?! 😉

 

Categories: 4 – 6 people, 25 min prep time, 20 min cooking time

Vegetarian, vegan, lactosefree, nutfree, low in histamine

 

Ingredients:

• 200 g fine brown bulgur or couscous (substitute with quinoa or millet to make it glutenfree)
• 1 tsp dried mint
• ½ tsp chilli flakes (I used pul biber)
• 1 tsp cumin
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 400 ml vegetable broth
• 2 large white onions
• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp pepper paste (I used the mild one, but feel free to substitute with the hot one if you like it spicy)
• ½ bunch of parsley
• ½ bunch of dill
• ½ bunch of mint
• 1 bunch spring onions
• 1 cucumber
• 1 beef tomato
• 1 pomegranate
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 Tbsp pomegranate syrup (unsweeted !)

 

Preparation:

1. Transfer the bulgur to a sieve and rinse thoroughly with cold water. In a large pot mix bulgur with the dried mint, chilli flakes, cumin, sea salt and pepper. In a second pot bring the vegetable broth to a boil and pour over the bulgur. Cover with a lid and leave to swell for ca. 10 minutes until the bulgur has absorbed all the liquid. Transfer bulgur to a large bowl to cool down faster.
2. Peel onions and dice finely. Heat the olive oil in a large pan, when hot add the onions and sauté for 5-7 minutes until slightly browned. Add the pepper paste and mix well with a spatula until the onions are evenly covered by it. Keep frying for 2-3 more minutes while stirring constantly to prevent burning. Add to the bulgur in the large bowl.
3. Rinse the bunch of parsley, dill and mint under cold water. Tap dry and remove the thick stems. Chop finely. Wash spring onions and dice finely. Wash cucumber, halve lengthwise and remove the soft part in the middle containing the pits. Cut into cubes of ca. ½ cm diameter. Wash the tomato, halve it, remove seeds and cut into cubes of equal size as the cucumber. Open the pomegranate and carefully take out the seeds. Add herbs, spring onion, cucumber and tomato cubes as well as the pomegranate seeds to the large bowl with the bulgur and mix well.
4. Season the salad with the lemon juice and pomegranate syrup. Add more salt and pepper according to your own taste and the KISIR is ready! Decorate with slices of halved lemons if you like.