Dooney's Kitchen

Promoting and Redefining New Nigerian Food

Healthy Nigerian

Carrot & Spinach Bulgar Wheat

The proverbial Bulgur Wheat. The “miracle grain” to replace supposedly unhealthy grains like rice and pasta made with white flour. Heard of it through my neighbour Funmi over month ago now. She is on a diet to get her pre baby body back and she is aggressively cutting out so many things. This is a sexy hot mama of 2 and I am afraid for her sometimes, but I guess, since I haven’t been there before, I can’t understand her struggles. I have always taken my size 6-8 body for granted, but it is good to be around someone who is practising healthy eating. That knowledge will surely come in handy. Funmi and Jide have stopped eating rice, all they eat is bulgur wheat. Funmi also happens to be a fantastic cook, in fact I need to do an entire post of all I have eaten in her house. That girl throws it down in the kitchen.

Anyways, she kept telling me she wanted to try cooking bulgar wheat like Jollof rice but she is on a no oil for so so period kind of diet. People, she is really sticking to it. She doesn’t cook anything with oil. Even Efo riro, beans, stir fry. Trust me, I have eaten her meals for some time now and no oil. The day she made Efo riro in my presence with not a single drop of oil, I was amazed. If you weren’t told that no oil was used in cooking it, you wouldn’t have known. Same with beans and even a “stir fry” she made using just water. So, back to Bulgar. She told me to try it like Jollof rice, since she couldn’t and I agreed. I even went as far as buying us both bags of the thing from a health food store. Skinny minny’s like me don’t get this diet craze, so I just left the thing in my store cupboard. Hahahahaha. Yesterday I saw Dupe’s Bulgar wheat cooked like Jollof rice and suddenly got so excited. I tagged Funmi in the post saying, see this is what we talked about. Dupe and I discussed how she cooked hers. Dupe used the one pot method, Funmi and I are of the opinion that the 2 pot method will work better. I will experiment. Someone remind me to, because that Bulgar wheat packet will soon go back to the store and most likely stay there. Looool.

The packet finally saw the light of day for my emergency dinner guest yesterday. For someone who has never heard of bulgur wheat before, not to talk of eating it, I wanted to create a good first time experience, so I thought, rather than just boil it plain, let me make it more interesting and also visually appealing. I decided to fortify the bulgar wheat with vegetables. Precisely Carrots and Spinach. Whether a planned or unplanned dinner, eating at my place is an experience. I always like putting on a show and this combo did not disapppoint at all. Just the wow factor I knew it would be. Here’s how

This is the packet of Bulgur wheat that I used

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These are what the grains look like

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What I did to get this was, I scapred the skin off the carrots, boiled it in water till it got soft, and pureed in a blender. I mixed the pureed carrots with hot water and poured it into the bowl containing raw bulgur wheat. Which is why it has this orange colour. I had a guest waiting to eat, some pictures, I had to skip and just explain instead

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I emptied the entire contents of the bowl into the pot, added a little extra water to cook it till soft and placed it on high heat to cook

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This is what it looked like after cooking. If you are wondering what the carrots did to the overall flavour, I will tell you. It made it sweet. Sweet and more palatable to my taste buds. Carrots are naturally sweet. The carrots also gave it an earthy full bodied taste. This sure beats cooking bulgar wheat plain. It made it very interesting to eat and look at.

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When I scooped it out and some was left in the pot, I decided on a colour contrast, so I quickly blended a few leaves of spinach and added to what was left in the pot, making it green and left it to cook and absorb the spinach juice for about a minute or 2.

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Tah Dah………………… that’s your yellow-orangeish and green bulgar wheat. Pretty isn’t it. Diet meals don’t have to be boring and depressing.

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Let’s just say my dinner guest was mightily impressed. Who wouldn’t.

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I served this beauty with my amazing Chicken Teriyaki Stir Fry. Recipe click HERE
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The image for one of the recipes I took a brief look at, green beans was used as horns in the rice and I thought that was just too cute. I looked at so many pages in such a short time, I can’t even remember which page. Finished off with chopsticks, this is dinner from Dooney’s Kitchen the Express Way. Applications for dinner guest welcome, but please give me enough notice, otherwise penalties of an expensive bottle of wine, will apply. Loool. Those are my terms and conditions.

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I don’t know where Bulgur Wheat is sold in Nigeria. For those who live outside of Nigeria, check health food stores, mediterranean food stores or order Online. You can colour your rice like this, just blend vegetables and add to it. You can also do this with couscous or even Eba. To see how to with nigerian starchy solids, click HERE and click HERE


26 Comments

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FILED UNDER: Healthy Nigerian
TAGGED WITH: bulgar wheat with carrot, bulgar wheat with spinach, vegetable fortified bulgar wheat

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Comments

  3. Because of u holland and barratts shall soon be running out of bulgur wheat .lol.I need to apply to come as dinnet guest.Where do we apply?

    Reply

  5. Dooneyrooney!!!!! I am so speechless right now…..and to think I have this bulgar wheat from H&B in my cupboard since like forever! I am so doing this this very weekend!…… Thank you for the illustrations; you are a star!

    Reply

  6. You are totally awesome. U make cooking and food presentation seem like a piece of cake. Loveeee this veggie infused version of bulgar. Can’t wait to duplicate. Thnxxxx

    Reply

  7. Totally trying this, I’m also on a mission to reduce my carb footprint and I am loving bulgur wheat…I liked that it is even extra fortified with carrots and spinach….well done!

    Reply

  8. I would never have imagined this. I was put off bulgar wheat when I made it and it was just bland!!! But with your idea? Bulgar wheat will become my best friend…lol. I’m also trying this with couscous since it’s bland as well. Thank you Dunni, this is awesome! -:)

    Reply

  10. You are such a crazy friend in a good kinda way. So cool. Infact am more like an addict to ur blog now even if am not abt to cook I just love going tru…. hmm all my data is on u oo. Every other food site I know is just not working for me… I felt like spaghetti tonight and needed to get a different recipe other then my normal jollof recipe but I dint see any on ur blog and other site I saw it in was not just having that wow kinda thg so I decided to go my normal way but introducing white pepper, Nora J. Spice… it turned out so nice. Would v loved to send in a step by step pix but wt a husby waiting for dinner, I dare not waste too much time…lol. After that I made the Chinese crispy beef chilli sauce using cooked meet instead of the raw one. The soy sauce and Thai hot sauce I used made a huge difference. I then finished off with crayfish and some basil. It was so tasty served with my spaghetti on d side and a glass of Apple, Pineapple and watermelon dish… yummy. I hubby forgot he has been waiting for dinner for 3 hrs….hahaha.
    Thanks for being here and for the inspiration. God bless

    Reply

    • You made me smile tonight, I felt like giving you a Hi Five. Thank you so much. I love your twist on it, I am sure hubby must have loooooved his dinner

      Reply

      • Hi-5 gurl. Yea he did o…. he doesn’t spit words like that out but I always know when he loves something. we just got married and he has been always been saying that he hopes I no go feed him die wt all my cooking and now that I stumbled on ur blog lk 2 wks ago…hmmm… I pity him food wise. he go chop…lol but chop healthy sha.
        I hope u got all the pictures I sent to d mail today. Thanks dear

        Reply

  12. Thanks so much Dooney for this. Hmm being looking for a white rice replacement (whoever came up with the idea of brown rice is an enemy of progress, that is the worst thing ever) for a long time. See ehn ignorance is not bliss at all o, I always seen this in Holland and Barrett but just waved it aside as one of those oyibo ejekuje till I stumbled on it here. Perfect rice replacement, I bought a pack immediately I saw your post and did it come out nice, just wow! Though I did mine stir fry/jollof (don’t ask me lol), will send a picture. And apparently, this can be use in salads as well. Good stuff.

    Reply

    • LMAO @enemy of progress. Brown rice is just so not it at all. Those who say they enjoy it always get a major side eye from me. I saw your picture. beautifully well done. Yes, it can be used in sales with some chicken breast, vegetables, light dressing and you are good to go

      Reply

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Nigerian food, is bold, multi faceted, rich, colourful, spicy and with varied nuances, as you move from tribe to tribe. To describe Nigerian cooking, one would say it is fiercely traditional and somewhat dogmatic, but Dooney’s Kitchen proposes to simplify methods and steps that have been passed from generation to generation whilst also challenging some of these methods using Technology. The New Nigerian Cookery isn’t just about creating a New Nigerian Kitchen, or should we say a more technology aware Nigerian cooking experience, but it encompasses redefining recipes too. Come along on the journey, and welcome to one of the best online resources for Nigerian food.