A warm bulgur salad to prove leftovers can be rather exciting

I'm halfway through revising and editing my upcoming novel, and am starting to realise it is gonna take a bit longer to get it where I want it. I don't call it first draft, or second draft like most writers, I don't even have a first draft because everytime I finish writing for the day I make it a point of reading through it, correct grammar and spelling, and even the form, the layout. I always do a revision straight after finishing my daily writings, so I end up with some sort of a second draft straight away. But then when I have a bunch of chapters written, I tend to go and re-read the whole of it, just to make sure  I haven't bundled things up and the pace is similar, as well as the style. Before coming to the end of my manuscript writing.

So when I do get to the end of writing the whole thing, I am already in draft five hundred and something, I guess. Because I have re-read and revised and edited already so mant times. There are parts of the narrative I already know by heart. There are parts I tend to keep reading and revising to make sure it's not a complete piece of shit. Intimate scenes, love scenes, all that speaks of sentimentalism, I tend to pore over accutely, as I know I have a tendency to overdo it. They're all so whynny, my characters. So overly sentimental. It's always so poingant, those scenes, when I write them, I tend to go and tweak them the whole time because I always feel like there's just too much feeling in them. So I do.

But after I sift through the lot of it and get blunt with my delete button - I should use it even more, to be completely honest! - I am left with, well... leftovers! And those leftovers will need to be read through, in one go, so I can make sure the whole novel has some sort of coherent thread to it, to make sure the chapters line up, and the speech is adequate to the character, and the action flows. I have to make do with the leftovers and cook up something that is somehow edible, not to say nourishing. BecauseI firmly believe books will nourish you. The same thing happened to this warm bulgur salad. I was left with leftovers from my venison roast, so I had to make do with them for a speedy lunch.

I won't lie, I'm a huge fan of bulgur wheat. It is rich in fiber, it has proteins and a low glycemic index. But if not for the benefits, the taste of it would have me sold. There's a rich nutiness to it that is right up my alley, and I love using it to go with meat dishes and certain fish as well. I don't love it was much as I love barley - barley is my culinary joie de vivre, I think! - but I love it better than couscous, which is something else I'm rather particular to. And one of the things I have been wanting to try with bulgur is a warm root salad, like this one! I had some roast veggie leftovers, like I said, and it was only a question of cooking up the bulgur and roastig a very small butternut squash to have a yummy salad in my hands!

I urge you to cook this one up when you have leftover veggies from a roast, it will be worth it!

• half a cup of bulgur wheat
• 2 rmedium potatoes - depending on how many you want to feed!
• 1 butternut squash - again, size will depend on how many people you're serving
• 2 medium carrots
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 cup of brussel sproust
• half a cup of boiled peas
• salt, pepper, olive oil, herbes de provence

Start by turning on the oven at 180º. Wash, peel and dice the veggies. Toss them in a bowl with salt, pepper, olive oil and a scatter of herbes de provence. Pour them onto an oven tray and roast until they're tender and golden and ready. Allow to cool only slightly. Boil your peas in hot water with a pinch of salt and reserve. Cook the bulgur wheat according to instructions in the packet. Once the bulgur is ready, toss everything together in a bowl and check the seasoning, it might need a drizzle of olive oil, or a small scatter of lemon zest. Serve warm. Perfect for those leftovers from a big SUnday roast, isn't it? And meat free!