One of the world’s oldest cultivated grains, wheat is now more widespread than any other. Across the Levant – or the Middle East, if you like – it’s been the perhaps most important source of nutrition for 12,000 years. In the shape of bread – and as bulgur.
Where is bulgur from?
Bulgur is such an ancient way of preparing wheat, it’s not entirely clear where it originated. It’s most closely associated with the Middle East and North Africa, however, and remains most widely used across the Levent, Eastern Turkey, Central Asia and the Balkans, where it arrived in Ottoman times.
It’s typically most prevalent in rural areas, with rice often more common in the cities, though there are also significant regional differences, with some favouring rice and others bulgur. Within Turkey, for example, it’s used far more in the Eastern and Central cuisines than in the western parts.
The word bulgur itself has come into Western languages from Turkish, but according to Turkish etymologists, the Turkish use has its origins in the Persian word for “roughly crushed”. In the Arab world it’s known is burghul, while in Cyprus it’s pourgouri.
What is bulgur?
To start with the answer to the most basic of questions, bulgur is parboiled and crushed grains of wheat.
The process itself is actually quite simple. After being boiled until tender, the wheat is dried with the assistance of heat and air. At this point, the bran is removed. Finally, the wheat kernel is crushed to the size you’re looking for, which can be anything from basically full size grains to coarse sand.
While most people today purchase mechanically produced bulgur, in the past, its making was a communal effort. Huge sheets of wheat being dried could be seen on rooftops and in gardens, especially throughout the countryside.
Bulgur has a nutty flavour which adds a more distinct touch to your dishes than, say, rice or pasta. The simple and gentle process also keeps more of the nutrition compared to e.g. wheat flour, and wheat is naturally more nutritious than rice. The process itself is also an excellent natural preservative, keeping mold and other infestations at bay. Very important historically!
The different sizes makes it versatile and suitable for a wide variety of dishes. What’s more, since it’s parboiled, it cooks up in a matter of minutes.
Bulgur, in other words, has a lot going for it! It’s practical, tasty and nutritious.
No wonder it’s been a staple of important civilisations.
The different types of bulgur
If you’ve been to an international supermarket, you may have seen a plethora of different types of bulgur. The differences are usually across two axis:
Grain size
Type of wheat used
By and large, however, there are two main types of bulgur that’s used and widely available. Both are made from durum wheat and differ in size only.
The two most important types of bulgur
Coarse bulgur (pilavlık bulgur in Turkish) is usually about half the size rice in size, though there’s no uniform standard, so the size can vary between different brands. It’s widely used as a side dish, as a filling for dolma as well as for pilafs.
Fine bulgur (köftelik bulgur in Turkish) is finely crushed, closer to sand than rice in size. It doesn’t need boiling – steeping it in a hot liquid (or even cold ones, like lemon juice) for a few minutes is enough. It’s mostly used in salads, (vegetarian) meatballs or desserts. Its most famous use is probably tabbouleh.
In some countries, medium bulgur is also available. This is somewhere in between the two, but its use is the same as coarse bulgur.
The other types
In Turkey, we have a bunch of variations which can be harder to find elsewhere.
For the types differentiated by size, iri bulgur and ince pilavlık bulgur is somewhere between the two main types, while başbaşı is virtually a full grain.
There’s also bulgur made from other types of wheat, such as spelt or red wheat. The latter is often sold as “brown bulgur” (esmer bulgur in Turkish). In spite of its “healthier” appearance, brown bulgur isn’t actually more nutritious than regular durum wheat bulgur, but has an even more pronounced nutty flavour. Spelt and brown bulgur can be used interchangeably with regular yellow bulgur from durum wheat. Since they’re all parboiled, cooking times are usually more or less the same across the different grains (though will vary according to size).
Common uses of bulgur today
Pilaf: Made with coarse bulgur and usually cooked in stock, these can range from very basic side dishes to full on main courses in their own rights, with meat, vegetables and spices.
Dolma: Bulgur is commonly used in stuffed vegetables, particularly in Eastern Turkey and rural areas. Again, coarse varieties are mostly used for this.
“Meatballs”: Fine bulgur is key to the casing of kibbeh (içli köfte in Turkey), the meat-stuffed fried or boiled croquettes that are particularly popular in Lebanon and Syria. It’s also a key ingredient in the Turkish faux meatball dishes mercimek köftesi and çiğ köfte (originally with meat, but now more commonly without) and can be used in place of breadcrumbs in regular meatballs.
Salads: Fine bulgur is a great way to give texture to salads, or make them more filling. The best-known example is tabbouleh, where fine bulgur is usually added without any pre-soaking (or only soaked in lemon juice). A more bulgur-heavy salad is Turkish kısır, where fine bulgur is steeped in a flavoured broth, or my bulgur, chicken and fennel salad.
Soups: Bulgur provides wonderful texture and flavour to soups like the Turkish lentil soup Ezogelin.
Desserts: Fine bulgur can be used to thicken and provide texture in certain desserts, though this is a less common use.
The recipes
Here are the recipes I’ve mentioned throughout the article again:
What’s your favourite way to enjoy bulgur?
These are some of the most basic things to know about bulgur and its uses. With such rich history and use across multiple food cultures, however, it goes without saying that this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Do you use bulgur at home? Do you have a favourite way of using it? I’d love it if you would share your story in the comments!
I use the whole bulgar as jollof. A west African rice dish. I replaced the rice dish with bulgar to manage prediabetes and I am losing so much weight now and feeling great.