Curried bulgur pilaf with lamb & beets
Vivid red lamb dish with an unusual collection of flavors and quite "healthy"
Ingredients
- 2 Tblsp mild-flavored cooking oil
- 1 cup diced onion (about one medium onion)
- 2 cans (15 oz each) diced beets
- 1 and 1/4 cups coarse bulgur wheat
- 2 Tblsp mild curry powder ("hot" curry will overpower other flavors)
- 1 Tblsp tomato paste (save the rest for the next time you make pastitsio)
- 1 pound lean ground lamb (Soay meat is always lean, so it works really well here)
- 3 Tblsp pine nuts, toasted
- Chopped parsley leaves for garnish
- Juice from one lime (optional)
Directions
- Drain beets in colander, catching juice in a 2-cup measure. Discard all but one cup of beet juice. Add 1 cup water to make 2 cups of dilute beet juice.
- Heat oil in a heavy medium-sized Dutch oven, add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes or until just about to brown. Add bulgur and curry powder and cook, stirring continuously, for 2 minutes, until bulgur is fragrant and evenly coated.
- Add tomato paste and cook for 30 second, just to distribute paste.
- Add beet-water mixture carefully, bring to a boil, then reduce to low, cover, and cook for 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed (check after 10 minutes and again after 12 minutes - burned-on beet juice is really hard to get off your pan!)
- Turn off heat and let bulgur sit for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, lightly oil, or spray with oil, a skillet and cook the lamb over medium heat for 4-6 minutes or until pink is gone. Remove from heat and drain off fat, if there is any.
- Uncover bulgur, turn heat to very low, and add beets, cooked lamb and pine nuts. Toss to mix well and to get the whole mixture heated up a bit.
- Divide among plates, sprinkle with parsley, and squeeze a little lime juice and a little salt on top of each portion.
One of the most unusual lamb recipes I've run across, probably because the color is so startling. It would make a fun dish for Valentine's Day or Christmas Eve or another one of the "red" holidays. But the flavors are so nice, with each component staying pretty much intact. You really can taste the sweetish beets, and then the zingy bulgur, and of course the mild flavor of Soay meat.
The original recipe came from our local paper, the Medford Mail Tribune, in a feature called "Quick Fix ... when time is of the essence ... ready in 35 minutes." It takes me a little longer, but not much.
Although the original recipe says it serves only 4, it actually will serve 6 comfortably if you include a salad and some sort of vegetable.
Bon appétit!