Cracked Wheat Salad

Cracked Wheat Salad is a spicy salad made with bulgur wheat. It’s an ideal accompaniment for hot or cold fried chicken or baked salmon fillets.

Cracked Wheat Salad

An American friend introduced me to cracked wheat – or bulgur wheat, as it’s often called. She used to make this salad for lunch at the weekend and invite us all round for a lazy afternoon – pre-children, of course.

Most of the recipes you see using cracked wheat are for Tabouleh. It’s very similar to this recipe, but this doesn’t use any chopped mint, and has some chilli powder instead to add heat rather than coolness. This Cracked Wheat Salad is best eaten with meat or fish that’s fairly plainly cooked.

The ingredients are simple – apart from the cracked wheat – oil, lemon juice, seasoning and chopped up salad vegetables. You can add what you have in the fridge, really, such as spring onions or red onions, maybe avocado if it’s quite firm. This is a great way to spice up a salad and makes a change from rice salad or potato salad.

HELPFUL TOOLS

5-bladed herb cutting scissors – Brilliant for quickly cutting herbs without crushing them or your fingers.

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Print Recipe

Cracked Wheat Salad

Cracked Wheat Salad is made with bulgur wheat. It’s an ideal accompaniment for hot or cold chicken breasts or salmon fillets.

Prep Time25 mins

Total Time25 mins

Course: Accompaniment

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bulgur wheat, cracked wheat, salad

Servings: 4 servings

Author: [email protected] Cooks

Ingredients

• 250 ml cracked wheat, or bugur wheat
• 12 cherry tomatoes
• ¼ cucumber
• ½ red pepper
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 teaspoon salt (5ml)
• Ground black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon ground cayenne/chilli pepper (60ml)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• Fresh herbs e.g. parsley, coriander

Instructions

• Put the cracked wheat in a bowl and cover with at least 500ml boiling water
• Leave to stand for 20 minutes (longer is fine)

Meanwhile, chop the salad vegetables:

• Tomatoes into 8
• Cucumber into small dice
• Pepper into the same size pieces as the rest
• Mix the  lemon juice with the salt, pepper and chilli powder
• When the wheat is ready, drain in a sieve and put back in the bowl. While it's still warm, add the oil, lemon juice with seasonings and stir well to coat the wheat
• When the wheat is cool, add the salad vegetables and chopped herbs, and serve immediately or refrigerate until needed.