This salad could be the picture of healthy eating. Full of chopped fresh dill and parsley, boosted with green lentils and fine bulgur – with plenty of fresh lemon juice! Bat Salad, is so good you do not even need to add olive oil to the dressing.
You must have been expecting this salad from me, after posting several bulgur pilafs.
Bat Lentil and Bulgur Salad
This is a Bat Salad that fulfills everything you might expect from a rice salad, except it is made with bulgur. It is healthy, hearty and very fresh. Have it for lunch, you will not be able to have enough of a bowl and it will keep you full for the rest of the day guaranteed.
This salad is really very exceptional. It is chewy and mildly spicy texture, hearty with a nutty flavor. If you want to make it gluten free you can prepare it with cooked rice of your choice or pearl barley or even with quinoa.
Ingredients
Here’s all the salad ingredients, you can find the complete list, also the suggestions for substitutes down below!
Bulgur: use fine bulgur. Fine and medium bulgur are the ones to use in salads and tabbouleh. There are other sizes of bulgur such as coarse and very coarse bulgur. Use coarse and coarser for pilafs and stuffing vegetables. Substitutes: cooked rice of any choice, quinoa, couscous, small pasta shapes like orzo, and even pearly barley.
Green Lentils: rinsed, boiled, rinsed again and boiled again. Ready to eat! Do not replace with red lentils, they tend to get mushy for this recipe. Substitutes: canned lentils, do not forget to rinse before use. Boiled chickpeas, the salad will be tasty but it will become a different salad.
Tomato paste: Mixed and dissolved with cold water before adding to the salad. Substitutes: Chopped or grated tomatoes. Canned or fresh. But reduce the salt and perhaps add a teaspoon of vinegar and sugar to prevent the difference in taste.
Onions: Any type will do. The best choice will be scallions (green) onions. Substitutes: red onions, shallots, sweet onions, etc.
Red pepper: Use it for adding color and texture and freshness to your salad. Chop it to small pieces. Substitutes: dry tomato slices, different color peppers.
Dill and parsley: major players of this salad. Adding extra freshness to this salad.
Dressing Ingredients
You do not need to prepare a dressing separately, you can mix everything together in the bowl. Making this salad is that easy.
Plenty of lemon goes into this salad. I use up to 3 lemons. Not all lemons give same amount of juice. I like it around 100 millilitres (¾ cup / 3.4 oz.).
If you are missing pepper paste substitute with a chili of your choice. I used a home made chili, made with crushed fresh chili pepper and olive oil.
Add dry mint flakes, red pepper flakes and salt to taste. And you are finished with the dressing.
Assembly of the Bat Salad
Here is the timeline of making this salad. I hope you do not really need a video for it!
1) Boil Lentil 
2) soak bulgur 
3) put lentils over bulgur 
4) chop peppers 
5) chop green onions 
6) Bat Salad Mixture
You can prepare Bat Salad very watery and serve it like a cold soup or with much less water as a salad. Some like to eat it with grape leaves too.
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Lentil and Bulgur Salad / Turkish Bat Salad
Ingredients
- 175 grams fine bulgur
- 300 grams green lentils
- 1 bunch parsley
- 1 bunch dill
- 1 bunch spring onions
- 1 red pepper
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon pepper paste
- 3 lemons about 100 millilitres (3/4cup)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon dry mint flakes
- cold water to cover
Instructions
- Place the bulgur in a large deep serving pot. Add drinking water to cover. Drain the excess water.
- Wash the lentils. Then put them in a deep pot and cover with water.
- As soon as the water comes to a boil, remove to pot from the stove. Drain the lentils, rinse and put fresh water. Return back to the stove and start cooking again.
- Cook until lentils are edible. Do not overcook and turn the lentils into a puree.
- Drain the lentils, do not wash again and while still warm, pour them on top of the bulgur. Mix, cover and set aside.
- Meanwhile rinse the parsley and the dill and chop to tiny pieces. Leave out the thick stalks.
- Wash the fresh red pepper, take out the seeds and chop to small cubes.
- Wash, peel the outer layer of the green onions and chop to thin pieces.
- Mix pepper paste and tomato paste in a little bowl.
- By now the bulgur is probably cooked with the warmth of the lentils. Add all the greens you have prepared.
- Squeeze out the juice of the lemons and add.
- Add mint, red pepper flakes and salt to taste.
- Mix well and add drinking water to cover everything. You can choose to serve with less water.
- Taste and adjust spices.
- Serve chilled in small bowls as a side or main dish or as a cold soup.
- Soak grape leaves in boiling water and serve next to it. Some like to wrap this salad in grape leaves and eat it like that.
- Can be kept in the fridge for 1-2 days.
Notes
Did you make this recipe, please comment and rate below.
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