Celery, bulgur and pistachio salad
A salad of creams and greens, refreshing to the eye on a dreich day. It
also tastes superb. Aromatic celery contrasts with rich pistachio and
hints of lemon, balancing the slightly bitter endive and wheaty bulgur.
Good with bought celery it is a knockout if you grow your own.
Serve as a first course by itself or with other salads as a main; it
needs no accompaniment other than a glass of light red wine. The first
time I made it Dave and I liked it so much we ate nearly the whole bowl
and had no room for anything more, but we had had a balanced meal of
carbohydrate from the bulgur, protein from the nuts and lots of vitamins
from the celery and endive.
Serves 6 as a first course, 4 as a main.
Time taken 25 minutes
100g
bulgur wheat
4 tablespoons olive oil
70g raw, shelled pistachio nuts
1 small head celery (about 400g)
6 or 7 leaves of green endive
2 teaspoons finely chopped preserved lemon peel
1 or 2 tablespoons lemon juice
salt, preferably celery salt
Put the bulgur wheat into a bowl and add just enough cold water to
cover. Let stand for 15-20 minutes until the grains are just soft. You
don’t want to feel you are going to break your teeth on the centres of
the grains.
Heat the oil in a small pan and, when bubbles begin to rise, add the
pistachios and fry for a couple of minutes until the pistachio aroma is
tantalising. Don’t let the nuts brown. Take off the heat and leave until
no longer hot.
Slice the celery into dainty bits, include all the pale leaves from the
centre. Shred the endive leaves and mix with the celery in a large bowl.
Add the finely chopped preserved lemon and pour over the oil and
pistachios.
If there is any free water left in the bulgur, drain it off. Then mix
the grains into the salad. Pour over 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and mix
well. Taste. Add salt and more lemon juice if you want. Mix again,
trying to leave some pistachios on the top for eye appeal. Enjoy.