Although I use many grains when cooking at home, I tend to overlook bulgur. When it sits at the front of my shelves, I reach for it as a base under everything from shrimp to shish kebabs, but I forget about it as soon as the jar gets shoved to the back. So I was excited to dig out my jar and create a primer about cooking with bulgur in my latest piece for Taste of Home.

This chewy, nutty form of wheat cooks relatively quickly and contains loads of nutrients and fiber. It comes in grinds ranging from fine to extra coarse—info that isn’t always listed on bulk bins or packaging. In the Taste of Home article, I explain how to identify the size, and thus the cooking time, as well as offering tips on preparing and using it.

Learn more about cooking with bulgur in this article.

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Twice as Tasty

I’ve seen the name of this grain spelled bulgar, bulghur, burgul, and even burghul, depending on whether the dish incorporating it comes from the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe. Most Americans probably know bulgur as the base of tabbouleh salad and perhaps kibbeh, a spiced croquette typically made with meat but that I’ve prepared with winter squash and baked like falafel. I’ve also used bulgur instead of buckwheat when serving Roasted Vegetables with Tofu and in the filling for vegetarian enchiladas with homemade sauce, along with mushrooms and corn kernels.

When I was writing about bulgur, one of the recipes that caught my eye mixes fully cooked bulgur into chili. I loosely followed the ingredient list, popping open cans of kidney, garbanzo, and cannellini beans and swapping in pickled peppers, Corncob Stock, and home-canned jars of crushed tomatoes. The result was thick, hearty, and delicious, especially when topped with cold-smoked sharp Cheddar cheese and Homemade Sour Cream.

You can find more recipes that could be served with bulgur in the recipe index and more of my work off the blog here.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.