Beet and Pomegranate Salad
Tender beets with dill, parsley, walnuts and pomegranate in a lemon and olive oil dressing.
Kilis style
Last updated:
Last updated:
Lentil and Bulgur Pilaf with Onions
Kilis Mücedderesi
A Kilis pilaf of green lentils and coarse bulgur with soft, sweet onions, olive oil and a little butter and tomato paste.
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cook
- 30 min
- Rest
- 15 min
- Total
- 50 min
- Servings
- 2
Ingredients
- ½ cup Dry green lentils
- Water, for boiling the lentils, as needed
- 1 cup Coarse bulgur
- 2 Medium yellow onions, thinly sliced into half rings
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 2 tsp Unsalted butter
- 1 tsp Tomato paste
- 1 ½ cups Hot water, for the pilaf
- Table salt, to taste
- Ground black pepper, to taste
- Turkish red pepper flakes, to taste
Method
Rinse the lentils. Cover with water and simmer until tender but still intact. Drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a wide pot. Add the sliced onions and stir a few times. Cover and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until thoroughly softened. Reserve a few cooked onion slices for the top if desired.
Stir the butter and tomato paste into the remaining onions. Cook until the raw paste aroma disappears. Add the measured hot water, table salt, black pepper and pepper flakes, then bring to a boil.
Rinse the bulgur and stir it into the boiling liquid. Cover and cook over low heat for 5 minutes.
Gently stir in the drained lentils. Cover and continue over low heat until the liquid is absorbed and the bulgur is tender.
Remove from the heat and let rest for 15 minutes. Fluff gently, add any reserved onion slices and serve hot.
Cooking guidance
Serve with cacık, turşu and fresh bread.
Related recipes
Carrot Yogurt Dip
Soft grated carrots, garlic yogurt and walnuts make a creamy meze with a gentle sweetness.
Chickpea Rice
Buttery rice with tender chickpeas, inspired by Istanbul’s street-side pilaf carts. This version uses cooked chickpeas and water, with no chicken topping.
Dolaz
Aksaray’s savory dolaz: milk thickened with flour to a smooth, pudding-like consistency, salted and finished with butter melted with pul biber. Unlike the sweet dolaz made elsewhere in Central Anatolia, it has no sugar or molasses.
Eggplant Rice Pilaf
Tender Baldo rice with browned eggplant, tomato, onion, butter and fresh dill.
Green Lentil and Bulgur Pilaf
A plain, buttered pilaf of coarse bulgur and whole green lentils. The lentils are boiled separately, then folded into the bulgur as the cooking liquid is absorbed.
Green Lentil Pilaf with Poppy-Seed Oil
Dry green lentils are soaked and simmered, then cooked with coarse bulgur in their own liquid. Hot cold-pressed poppy-seed oil is stirred through, and the pilaf rests under a paper towel so the grains stay separate.
Green Lentil Salad
Whole green lentils with tomato, onions and parsley in a cumin, mint and lemon dressing.
Green Olive Salad
Green olives, tomato, parsley and spring onion in a tangy pomegranate and lemon dressing.
Red Pepper and Walnut Dip
Roasted red peppers and walnuts with fresh bread crumbs, pomegranate molasses and cumin.
Rice Pilaf with Orzo
Buttery white rice and golden toasted orzo, gently simmered and rested until the grains are separate.
Roasted Chestnuts
Chestnuts scored, soaked and oven-roasted until tender, then rested under a cloth for easier peeling—a home version of a familiar Istanbul winter snack.