Kısır is a traditional Turkish side dish made from fine bulgur, parsley, and tomato paste. The main ingredient, bulgur, is a cereal food generally made from parboiled durum wheat. For kısır, a finely grounded bulgur, unlike the coarse bulgur used for pilav, or sometimes couscous is used. Common additional ingredients include parsley, tomato paste, onion, garlic (in some regions), sour pomegranate juice (in southern regions of Turkey) or lemon, lettuce leaves, cucumber, and a lot of spices. It has a reddish color due to tomato paste admixture. It can be eaten cold and used as a salad or meze.
Ingredients:
1 cup bulgur wheat, large grain
60 ml olive oil
1 onion, diced
1-2 tbsp tomato paste
1 lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cumin
Preparation:
First put the bulgur in a large bowl and pour two cups of hot water on it (it should stay like this for 5 minutes). Meanwhile in a medium sized pot, place the onion and olive oil. Cook until the onions turn light brown. Add the salt, tomato paste, lemon juice and cumin.
Then wash and drain the bulgur, and mix it into the pot with a wooden spoon. Cook for about 10 minutes on medium-low heat. Afterwards, cover the lid and set aside for it to cool down.
When it's cold, add in the following:
3-4 tomatoes, diced
4-5 fresh green onions, diced
1 cup chopped parsley
Toss and serve. This recipe goes well with Ayran. Keep refrigerated as Kisir is best served cold.