Bulgur Chickpea Salad

To make this a gluten-free recipe, substitute the bulgur with a gluten-free grain such as rice, quinoa or millet.  A dairy-free and nut-free recipe. 
This recipe is grain-based and, in anticipation for warmer weather, is an easy salad you can make for lunch or dinner.  We use bulgur here — quick to prepare in a rice cooker, as we do in our classes, or on a stove top.  At Nurture we try to create recipes that can act as complete meals, so chickpeas are included to add protein.  But if you want to use this salad as a side dish, you can eliminate them.  The red peppers add crunch and color, but we also found that toasted almonds, either sliced, chopped or slivered, taste wonderful with the spinach, green onions and mandarin oranges. The dressing has a few shakes of Tabasco in it — just enough to notice the tang of chile peppers.  If you like that lovely heat, add a few shakes more!  We’ve served this salad at several outreach functions and have had a continuous stream of requests for the recipe ever since.

Please click here to view the full “Bulgur Chickpea Salad” recipe (PDF).
Need to buy a rice cooker ? We’ve search the web and selected a great option for you (value and ease of operation) that you can purchase through the links below. Thanks to Amazon Associates, when you purchase through one of the Amazon product icons, the Healthy Kids site gets a little kickback from Amazon. You don’t pay more; in fact, you will likely get a better deal than what you might find in stores. Our relationship with Amazon helps to offset the cost of running this website. If we end up making a profit– especially since our time is volunteer–we donate it to Nurture, a non-profit that helps low-income families improve nutrition and health. Thank you!