GORGE

I have been eating a lot of bulgar wheat lately, I find it soaks up flavours really well and it’s a lot more beneficial for you than a lot of other grains. It is high in protein, low in carbs, low in fat, high in fiber and rich in minerals. It can reduce the risk of heart disease, osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes and helps your body use insulin more effectively which lowers unhealthy fats found in the blood. It can also protect against cancer.  So why wouldn’t you eat it!

I started off wanting to make an “imam bayildi” so started off with those principles but then just started chucking stuff in to pad it out and came up with something that was really tasty and healthy!

I also saw an interesting tip about aubergines on a cooking channel last week, aubergines can be male or female! Depending on which one you get depends on if it has a lot of seeds inside or not and personally I prefer them without the seeds. You need to look at the bottom end of the aubergine to determine the sex!

Boy or girl?

Ingredients

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a starter

2 large Aubergines – preferably male!
200g Bulgar Wheat
400ml Veg or chicken stock
5 fat cloves of garlic – one crushed and 4 sliced thinly
8 medium sized vine tomatoes
2 pointed red peppers sliced. ( fat ones will do if you cant find them but Aldi always have them in)
1 large onion diced
3 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp dried Oregano
Salt
Pepper
Fresh Parsley – 5 stalks and leaves finely chopped
Fresh Corriander – 3 stalks and leaves finely chopped
1 small red chilli chopped fine.
A handfull of pine nuts – toasted
Half a pack of feta
Half a lemon
White wine vinegar

First of all roast your aubergines. Heat the oven to 200°C or gas mark 6 and then slice your aubergines in half lengthways. Score a criscross pattern into the flesh but be careful not to go through the purple skin.Slot the slices of garlic into some of the incisions then rub with salt and olive oil and cook in the oven for around 25 minutes flesh side up until the flesh is very soft.

Whilst the aubergines are roasting, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and gently fry the onions and peppers for around 5 minutes until soft then add the crushed garlic, chilli and tomatoes and fry for a further 5 minutes. Add the cumin and oregano, a genourous grind of salt and pepper, a splash or white wine vinegar and the juice of half a lemon and stir for a minute. Add the bulgar wheat and stock and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer very gently for 5 minutes then take off the heat but leave covered until the bulgar wheat has soaked up the stock and is soft.

When the aubergines are done, leave them to cool for 10 minutes and then scoop out the flesh being careful to keep the outer shell intact. add the aubergine flesh to the bulgar wheat and stir, check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper if needed.

Toast a handful of pine nuts in a dry frying pan and set aside.

Spoon the bulgar wheat mixture into the aubergine skins and then scatter with the toasted pine nuts, and finely chopped flat leaf parsley and corriander then top with crumbled feta. I had no feta so used some grilled pieces of halloumi chopped into small pieces which was also nice but feta would be best.