One-Pot-Wonder Tabouleh Bread

I have been fascinated by bread since I picked up my first .75 centime baguette, piping hot from my neighborhood boulangerie in Paris at age 19. I've followed my nose through markets in Tuscany to find the fresh baked focaccia, boiled a potato until I could shove it through a sieve to bake a braided Russian sweetbread, and learned the hard way that too many serrano peppers make even the tastiest jalapeno cheese bread inedible. So when I saw Parsley, Sage & Sweet's One Pot Tabouleh Bread, it was too beautifully simple to turn down.

This recipe needs only one thing: a 3 quart, non-stick pot. If you don't have this, you can try making the bread in a different pan but the consistency and crust will not be the same. Once you have your pot, it really is a one bowl (and many prep dishes) job.

First, place bulgur wheat in boiling water, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 20 minutes while the wheat cooks. In the meantime, you can chop the parsley and mint, thinly slice the green onions, mince the garlic, and zest one, whole lemon. Once the wheat has absorbed most/all of the water, strain it into a prep bowl and pour the tepid water into the pot, adding salt, yeast, and flour. As you mix this up, stir in the wheat, parsley, mint, green onions, and lemon zest (my batter was too dry, so I added an extra 1/3 c water). 

Cover the dough once mixed and place in a warm, dry corner of the kitchen to rise for 60-90 minutes. Stir the dough back down at 90 minutes, cover tightly, and place in the fridge to chill for 10-14 hours. A night and day later (I made mine before bed and baked it the next night), pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, take the dough out of the fridge, and decorate with parsley and mint leaves, a few chives, and some grape tomatoes (you can leave them whole or cut them in half if they're on the larger side). Switch your oven to bake and place the pot in to bake for 30-40 minutes (my oven runs a bit cold, so it took 45 min).

Isn't it beautiful? I could barely bring myself to slice it up.

Once done, let cool before you invert it and it should slide right out of the pot. Flip onto your serving dish and serve with hummus, olive oil and salt, or mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil.

 

As you can see, the consistency is dense and packed with flavor. My favorite way to serve this is to pan fry a slice in olive oil (only one side - lightly warm the other side but it should still be soft) for a minute or two and serve with olive oil and extra grape tomatoes. I may even freeze a bit to be cubed, roasted, and served with a ripe cheese for Thanksgiving.

 

Ingredients:

- 2 1/4 c tepid water
- 3-4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 pacquet Active Dry Yeast - .25 oz
- 4 c All Purpose Flour
- 1/3 c bulgur wheat (fine to medium grain)
- 1/3 c boiling or very hot water
- large handful parsley leaves, chopped
- small to medium handful mint leaves, chopped
- 4 green onions, sliced thinly
- 4 - 5 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 lemon, zested
- 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

- 1 tsp tasting salt (think Maldon's)
- grape tomatoes - cut in half or left whole if smaller
- 3 or 4 chives and extra parsley and mint for topping