Microwave bulgur for one – Rediscovering my kitchen

I love food. I love to cook. I love concocting never-before-seen meals inspired by gorgeous produce from the Greenmarket or my mother’s garden. I love serving dinner to friends and family. I love reading cookbooks and food blogs and recipe sites. I love the smell of bread baking in my oven and onions and garlic sauteing in olive oil. I love mixing vinaigrettes, stir frying veggies, even dicing onions. Spending time in a kitchen (even my back pocket of a NYC kitchen) makes me happy.

So, I am distressed: My cupboard is all but bare, and I rarely cook anymore, even when I ostensibly have the time to do so. These days, I eat most of my meals in my Big Law employer’s cafeteria. And on those rare days when I am home in time for dinner, you will often find me ordering out.

It was not always so. I grew up at my mother’s hip in the kitchen, learning to disregard recipes, taste frequently and cut towards my thumb. I would take my turns at the stove for family meals as a cranky teenager. I kept a sourdough starter in college. I managed to throw lively dinner parties during law school.

I have lacked both the opportunity and the motivation to cook for myself since I moved to New York. But fear not, gentle reader. Despite my absurd clients and my pervasive sloth, the take-out offerings near my Yorkville have started to taste, well, mediocre. So I am planning eating adventures and polishing my repertoire of convenient meals, all of which I hope to share with you. Like the ridiculously easy, nutritious bulgur recipe below, which is made entirely from nonperishable food items you can keep in your pantry.

Microwave Bulgur for One

Ingredients:

All measurements are approximate.

• 1/4 cup bulgur
• 1/2 teaspoon tomato paste
• 1/2 teaspoon chicken or vegetable “Better than Bullion” and 1/2 cup boiling water

- or -

1/2 boiling chicken or veggie broth

• 1 generous pinch cumin seeds (optional)
• ~ 6 oz. firm silken tofu, finely cubed (about 1/2 of the aseptic tofu packages from the refrigerator case. I like Mori-Nu.)
• 1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach (or other frozen veggies)
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts (optional)
• salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste

Directions:

• Boil water or broth.
• Measure bulgur, tomato paste, bullion and cumin seeds, if desired, into a soup bowl.
• Add boiling water or broth to bowl and stir until tomato paste and bullion are dissolved.
• Add cubed tofu and spinach and stir to combine.
• Cover bowl and cook on high in microwave for 5 minutes (or bring these ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan, then cover).
• Let stand, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until most of the liquid is absorbed and bulgur is tender.
• If bulgur is still chewy after 20 minutes, microwave for 2 minutes on high and let stand for 5 minutes longer.
• Add salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste, and pine nuts, if desired.

Clacked by Molly B.
on Jan 01, 2009 @ 15:22 EST5EDT