Bulgur With Meat (Burgul Bi Dfeen)

We Lebanese like to have a side dish with the stew, usually rice, pasta, potatoes or bulgur. Bulgur is a main ingredient in our cuisine. It could be fine in kibbe and tabboule, or coarse when cooking it with tomato, vegetables or meat. The meal I am making today is called “Burgul Bi Dfeen” in Arabic, which translated means buried in bulgur. Maybe they named it such because after cooking, the meat is buried under the bulgur 🙂

Ingredients:

300 grams meat lamb chunks
500 grams baby onion, peeled
1 cup chickpeas (soaked one night ahead with a dash of bicarbonate of soda)
2 cups coarse bulgur
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon seven spices
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoon corn oil

Preparation:

1. Heat one tablespoon of oil in a pot and fry the meat until brown and add 1 teaspoon of salt and seven spices before covering it with about 2 liters of water and boiling it until nearly tender

2. In another pot heat, the remaining oil and fry the onion until golden brown, then add the chickpeas and cover with one cup of water; let it cook on a very low flame until tender

3. Add the cooked meat to this pot with the bulgur and cover with about 3 cups of meat stock; season with salt, pepper and cumin and cover the pot to let it simmer on low heat until the water is absorbed

4. Serve it with yogurt on the side