Grain and Veggie Salad over Shredded Cabbage

First thing first, this recipe is a knock-off of a tasty Trader Joe salad.  On our recent trip to Chicago I was looking for lunch food that we could take on the plane.

Trader Joe's has lots of tasty salads, but most of them have a mini dressing container.  Being paranoid, as I am, in addition to abhorring the idea that TSA might dump my lunch because my salad dressing was more than three ounces, I bought us Trader Joe's Vegetable & Grain Country Salad, purely because it was the only one that didn't have a dressing container.  Lunch disaster avoided.

Let me just tell you, that little salad tasted way better than either of us expected!  The other great part is, it holds up well without refrigeration for a couple of hours, which makes it nice if you're on the run.

Somewhere in the sky between Sacramento and Chicago I decided I was going to knock this salad off.

So here goes....

2 cups of cooked Bulgar wheat*
1 cup of chick peas (aka garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
1 roasted red pepper, chopped small
1 small zucchini (or cucumber works too), chopped small
1 tbsp. fresh dill
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. white balsamic
2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper
2 cups shredded cabbage

Start by roasting your red pepper.
Core the pepper and cut it in half.  Put each half face down on a piece of foil (or a pan) and roast in your oven on high broil until the skin turns completely black.  Remove from oven (use tongs) and immediately place into a Ziploc bag and seal.  Allow the pepper to steam for 15-20 minutes.  Remove from bag, peel off skin and chop.
In a bowl (not your serving or storing bowl), add cooked Bulgar wheat, garbanzo beans, roasted red pepper, zucchini (or cucumber) and fresh dill and mix well.
Stir in cherry tomatoes.
Add cumin, salt and cracked black pepper and mix.
Follow with olive oil and white balsamic and and mix well.
Layer the bottom of your serving or storing bowl with cabbage.  Pour the Bulgar wheat mixture on top and serve or store.

*Let's talk about Bulgar wheat.  I bought mine in bulk at our local co-op, but you can also find it here.  Watch out because the Bulgar wheat will super multiply when cooking.  Because I bought it in bulk I had no idea how much to cook in order to yield two cups and I ended up with a crapton.  I used this guide for cooking, which basically says 2 parts water to 1 part Buglar wheat.  I would use the boiling method as opposed to the soaking method (I started with the soaking method and ended up boiling it to get it cooked all the way).  This guide says 1 cup of uncooked Bulgar wheat yields about 3 cups cooked.  I would say that's about right.  So for my recipe which calls for two cups cooked you would need 2/3 cup uncooked.

Enjoy your grains!
TCW

*I've linked up at the following sites:
The Tasty Alternative
This Chick Cooks