Bulgur

Bulgur is a cracked wheat food common in Middle Eastern and South Asian cuisines, recognized as a whole grain by the USDA, with a light, nutty flavor; it is made by parboiling raw wheat, then dehulling, drying and cracking it. Cooked bulgur is about 78 percent water, 19 percent carbohydrate and 3 percent protein with minimal fat, and its different grain sizes serve different purposes, coarse bulgur for pottages, medium and fine grades for breakfast cereals, pilafs, breads, salads such as kisir, and puddings; it is a key ingredient in kibbeh and tabbouleh and often substitutes for rice or couscous. In Greece and Cyprus it appears in koupes, a deep fried kibbeh variant, and in Saudi Arabia's Nejd and Al-Hasa regions a version called jarish is common; food historian Gil Marks traces bulgur's origin to around 4000 BC in the ancient Middle East, calling it one of the first processed foods, and it was brought to North America by Armenian, Syrian and Jewish immigrants in the twentieth century, while a 2007 study found southeastern Turkey consumed it at two to two and a half times the rate of pasta or rice, averaging 25 to 35 kilograms per person a year.