A tangy Armenian bulgur salad built on tomato paste, olive oil, and lemon — eaten cold at every Armenian meze table, brighter and more assertive than its Lebanese cousin tabbouleh.
Eetch is Armenia's bulgur salad, and it occupies a different flavor space than the Lebanese tabbouleh that Western diners may reach for as a reference point. Where tabbouleh is herb-dominant with bulgur as a secondary element, eetch is tomato-dominant with bulgur as the absorbing vehicle. The bulgur is cooked directly in diluted tomato paste and olive oil until it has drunk up every drop of the liquid, becoming deeply red and richly flavored before a single herb is added. The result is a salad that tastes concentrated, sweet-tart, and intensely savory — the tomato flavor cooked into each grain rather than applied after. Lemon juice and fresh parsley go in at the end, and some versions add green onion, mint, or a scatter of pomegranate seeds. Eetch is served cold or at room temperature and improves significantly after a few hours in the refrigerator when the flavors settle and meld. At an Armenian meze table, eetch sits alongside mshosh, basturma, white cheese, olives, and pickled vegetables — the full spread that begins every Armenian gathering before the hot dishes arrive. The bulgur used is fine or medium grind, never coarse.
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