When I crave comfort food in the middle of summer – Bulgur bake with a tahini béchamel

Hey there!

So people, I am trying to get back into posting recipes on a regular basis. I know I have been kind of slack over the past months. Oh well I did lots of travelling which for me is one of the most amazing things in life. I love to travel. I am actually already daydreaming about my next trips. There are just so many places I haven’t been to and so many that still need to be seen.

Today is all about cooking though as I am for now stuck at home because I kind of haven’t got any money left to go on further adventures. Oh well I guess this girl needs to get a job…

My sister and my mum actually went back to school today (my mum’s a teacher hence she still gets school holidays). As they both had their first days back I decided to cook something a bit more time-consuming for them. I was actually craving some comfort food, a tad strange in this hot weather but oh well I just felt like it. At first I was going to make a pastabake but since we just had pasta the day before I decided to go with a different kind of bake. I ended up coming up with a delicious bulgur one with a tahini béchamel.

The first thing I did prior to starting my cooking session was obviously checking our fridge, pantry as well as our garden, which I always do during this time of the year. I spotted tons of Swiss chard in our garden and we also had some pumpkin left in our pantry so I decided to add those two veggies to the bulgur base. As I personally love the Moroccan cuisine I decided to give this dish a Moroccan twist by adding spices such as cumin and coriander as well as topping it with a tahini béchamel. It takes a while to prepare this dish as there are three separate components to it yet I personally think it is totally worth the extra work as the outcome is just amazing. The flavours of the bulgur, the veggies and the spices just come together perfectly in the 30 minutes in the oven and the genius tahini béchamel makes this dish extra creamy and gives it the comfort food touch I was going for. Who doesn’t love a creamy baked casserole of yumminess? I also decided to top the whole thing with some extra sesame seeds for a little bit of extra crunch and obviously to make it look all pretty and put together.

For today I haven’t got much else to say. I guess I’ll just show you the recipe.

Recipe for three to four people

• 100g bulgur
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 500g pumpkin (hokkaido)
• 300g Swiss chard
• ¼ tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tsp paprika
• 20g tahini
• 1dl rice milk (any other milk works too)
• 1 tbs flour
• 1-2 tbs sesame seeds
• salt
• olive oil
• optional: chopped parsley to sprinkle on top just before serving it

1. Prepare bulgur according to package direction
2. Finely chop up your onion and garlic. Cut your pumpkin into bite-sized chunks and chop up your Swiss chard.
3. Pour some olive oil into a pan and add the chopped onion and garlic. Also add all the spices (ground coriander, cumin, paprika). Fry over medium heat until the onion has softened.
4. Add the pumpkin and the Swiss chard, add 1 dl of water and cover with a lid. Let your veggies cook over medium low heat.
5. While your veggies are softening start preparing the tahini béchamel. Add the tahini into a pan and let it heat up over medium low heat.
6. When the tahini is heated up add the flour and stir it in, then pour in your rice milk and 1 dl of water. Let the mixture come to a boil and stir continuously. When your ‚béchamel’ has come to a boil lower the heat and let it simmer for a bout 5 minutes, keep stirring. Add salt to taste.
7. Your Swiss chard should have wilted by now but your pumpkin will still be slightly hard but don’t worry it will go all soft and tender during its time in the oven. Add the bulgur to the veggies and mix. Add salt to taste.
8. Transfer your veggie bulgur mixture into a casserole dish. Top it with the tahini béchamel and sprinkle on one to two tablespoons of sesame seeds.
9. Bake your bulgur bake for 30 minutes at 180°C. Top with some freshly chopped parsley just before serving it and enjoy.

Voila amazingly creamy completely vegan comfort food. Who says you need tons of cheese and cream for some real comfort food. I am not saying those things aren’t yummy I just tend not to eat it hence I come up and create yummy alternatives like this one. Anyways this was absolutely amazing and totally mum and sister approved which is always a plus. So guys we’ll see what I’ll come up with next. I’ve still got another month of holidays before uni starts so make sure to keep checking my blog for new recipes. I’m sure this won’t be last new creation during the next weeks.

Bisous