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Celebrate the arrival of spring with this Spring Bulgur Wheat Salad with Avocado Herb Dressing. This bulgur salad is simple to make and full of delicious ingredients made from the spring harvest.
Well who would have thought that it’s actually bulgur wheat and not bulgar wheat?! Good thing I figured this out before writing the post.
When Jess and I were iterating on what recipes to test, my mind could not let go of the idea of a spring grain salad of sorts. I love me some asparagus and fresh english peas. Funny enough, I don’t like frozen peas but I did like this recipe and I’m 90% sure Jess snuck in frozen peas behind my back…so there’s that! This Spring Bulgur Wheat Salad with Avocado Herb Dressing will help you celebrate all the new veggies coming into season in the best way possible… by eating them!
What is Bulgur Wheat?
The recipe did spark quite the debate with Jess about the difference between bulgur wheat, farro, freekeh and wheat berries. Turns out they’re all pretty much the same but grown from different varieties of wheat, sometimes in different temperatures and with or without the outer wheat germ. Who knew wheat could be grown and processed in so many ways?!
For this recipe we went with bulgur wheat because it’s super quick to cook. If you use the pasta-style method it only takes 10 minutes to cook. Love me some wheat berries but man do those take forever to cook!
Spring Bulgur Wheat Salad Ingredients
- bulgur wheat
- asparagus
- english peas – fresh or frozen both work
- shelled pistachios
- parmesan cheese
- herb goddess dressing – avocado, fresh chives and parsley, lemon juice, greek yogurt, salt and water.
How to Make Bulgur Wheat
A lot of people have never cooked bulgur wheat so I thought I would walk you through the process.
- You’ll begin by cooking your bulgur as you would quinoa or rice by adding it to a pot of boiling water.
- The bulgar will only cook for about 10 mins (test it to make sure it is done).
- Rather than the bulgar soaking up all of the water, you will strain the wheat as you would pasta using a mesh sieve or fine colander.
- Voila! Your bulgur wheat is done.
How to Make Bulgur Wheat Salad
STEP 1: Make your bulgur wheat by following the directions above. Set aside.
STEP 2: Cut the asparagus into pieces that are about ½ inch long. Saute the asparagus with oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. Add the peas and continue to saute until the vegetables have a nice golden color and are tender. Lightly salt and set aside.
STEP 3: Combine all dressing ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Add water until you get a smooth, pourable consistency.
STEP 4: Combine the bulgur wheat, vegetables, pistachios and parmesan crumbles in a bowl. Serve the salad with the dressing on the side or drizzled over the top.
How to Store Spring Bulgur Wheat Salad
Leftovers of this salad store really well! You can store the salad separate from the dressing or store it combined so the flavors marinate together in storage. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.
PrintSpring Bulgur Wheat Salad with Avocado Herb Dressing
Celebrate the arrival of spring with this Spring Bulgur Wheat Salad with Avocado Herb Dressing. This bulgur salad is simple to make and full of delicious ingredients made from the spring harvest.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: Cook
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup bulgur wheat
- 1 bunch asparagus
- 1 cup english peas (fresh or frozen)
- 1/3 cup shelled pistachios, roughly chopped
- 1/3 cup parmesan cheese, crumbled
Herb Goddess Dressing*:
- 1 ripe avocado (med-large)
- 1 bunch of chives
- 1 bunch of parsley
- Juice of 1.5 lemons
- 4 tbsp greek yogurt
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4–1 cup water
*Dressing makes lots of extra so feel free to cut in half or save the rest for other recipes
Instructions
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Pour in the bulgur wheat and cook for about 10 min. Drain the grain as you would pasta through a sieve.
- While the bulgur wheat is cooking cut the asparagus into pieces that are about ½ inch in size.
- Saute the asparagus with some oil for about 5 mins and then add the peas. Continue to saute the asparagus and peas until they have a nice golden color and are tender. Lightly salt.
- While the veggies are cooking crumble the parmesan into little pieces.
- Combine the bulgur wheat, vegetables, pistachios and parmesan in a bowl.
- Next make the dressing: In a food processor or blender combine the dressing ingredients and blend until smooth, adding water until you get a smooth and pourable consistency.
- Serve the salad with the dressing on the side or drizzled over the top.
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It sounds really like a great recipe. Simple but tasty and full of nutrients. I will try for sure..
Avocado!!!! Any dish with avocado is luscious. Look healthy, I should try this.. I was hunting for dishes which suits my diet plan. Hope I steel this recipe and try it. Thanks for sharing healthy dishes with a twist.
How many servings does the recipe make as-is? If I were going to make this for meal prep lunches, should I double the recipe?
I’ve never tried or cooked bulgur before so please forgive my naivete. How different is it from quinoa in terms of flavor and texture?
pretty different! bulgur wheat is from the wheat grain whereas quinoa is a type of seed. The texture is somewhat similar but the flavor profile is very different. I find quinoa to be a bit earthier tasting. You could certainly replace the bulgur wheat with quinoa if you preferred. Enjoy!