If you’ve been to Turkey on holiday, it’s highly likely that you’ll have been served a Kisir salad just like this as part of a mezze. The combination of nutty bulgur wheat in spicy tomato and harissa marinade mixed with fresh herbs, cucumber, spring onions and tomatoes is a real taste of summer. This recipe takes about 30 minutes to make and will easily serve six people if you’re serving it with BBQ meats and other Mediterranean side dishes – we like BBQ courgettes and peppers with it.
- 250ml boiling water
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 generous teaspoons of rose harissa paste (I use the Belazu brand – you can buy it at Sainsbury’s)
- 1 tsp salt
- 200g bulgur wheat, rinsed
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 60ml extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
- Zest and juice of half a lemon
- Generous handful each of fresh mint, flat leaf parsley (coriander is also nice), finely chopped
- Six spring onions, cleaned and finely chopped
- 1 cucumber, peeled, deseeded and finely chopped
- 10 cherry tomatoes, quartered
To make…
- Mix the boiling water, tomato paste, salt and harissa paste together thoroughly in a bowl. Add the bulgur wheat, stir, cover with cling film and leave to stand for 15 to 20 minutes until the liquid has been completely absorbed.
- Prep the herbs, spring onions, tomatoes and cucumber whilst the bulgur wheat is absorbing the spiced tomato liquid.
- Fluff the bulgur wheat up with a fork and stir in the cumin, olive oil, pomegranate molasses, lemon zest and juice.
- Stir in the spring onions, tomatoes, cucumber and fresh herbs. Serve at room temperature.
Pigeon Cottage Kitchen 