Name: Freekeh pilaf
Yield: Serves 2–4
Ingredients: ½ garlic clove, crushed; salt and black pepper; 100 g Greek yoghurt; 1½ tsp lemon juice; 270 ml good-quality reduced vegetable stock; ¼ tsp ground allspice; 10 g coriander, finely chopped; 10 g mint, finely chopped; 2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted and roughly broken; 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to finish; 150 g freekeh (or bulghar wheat); ¼ tsp ground cinnamon; 10 g parsley, finely chopped, plus extra to garnish; 25 g butter; 2 medium onions, thinly sliced

Preparation info

Serves
2–4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Plenty

By Yotam Ottolenghi

Published 2010

About

We normally enjoy grains once they have matured and dried, but there is a widespread culinary tradition of consuming green, semi-mature grains, which taste grassier and are more nutritious than the dried version. Throughout the Middle East it is common to process young and green durum wheat into freekeh. This is done by literally burning the wheat head in order to scorch the chaff and thus to assist removing the grain. The result is lightly charred green grains with a wonderful smoky aroma,