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Bulgur

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Bulgur is a special food made from wheat. It has a light and nutty flavor.

bulgur
bulgur

Many people in the Middle East and South Asia love to eat it. It is a whole grain, which means it is very healthy. The United States Department of Agriculture recognizes it as a whole grain. People use it in many different ways. It can be a main part of a meal or a side dish.

Bulgur2
Bulgur2

Making bulgur involves a few important steps. First, raw wheat is parboiled, which means it is boiled in water. Next, the outer shells are removed from the wheat. Then, the wheat is dried out completely. Finally, the wheat is cracked into smaller pieces.

Assyrian woman pounding Burghul
Assyrian woman pounding Burghul

These pieces can be coarse, medium, or fine. You can even eat bulgur just by soaking it in water. It does not always need to be cooked.

This food has a very long history. It comes from the ancient Middle East. A food historian named Gil Marks says it started around 4000 BC. This makes it one of the first processed foods ever made. In the Middle Ages, people used it to make kishk. Kishk is a preserve made from dried yogurt and milk. We can find recipes for it in an old Arabic cookbook called kitab al-tabikh. This book was written by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq.

There are many tasty dishes made with bulgur. It is a main part of kibbeh and tabbouleh salad. In Cyprus, people use it to make a type of kibbeh. This is deep-fried and filled with meat, onions, and spices. Armenians make a pilaf using bulgur and chicken stock. You can also find it in breakfast cereals or sweet puddings like kheer. Some people use it instead of rice or couscous. It can even be used to make a salad called eetch.

People around the world eat a lot of this grain. In parts of Turkey, people eat much more bulgur than rice or pasta. One study found they eat about 25 kilograms every year. In the Levant, Arabia, Iran, and Iraq, people eat even more. They might eat between 30 and 35 kilograms each year. The word bulgur comes from the Turkish way to say the Arabic word burghul. This word originally came from the Persian word barghul.

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File:bulgur.jpg
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File:Assyrian woman pounding Burghul.jpg
Assyrian woman pounding Burghul.jpg
File:Bulgur2.jpg
Bulgur2.jpg
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