Toasted Bulgur with Tomato and Mint

The Armenian bulgur salad called eetch is reminiscent of tabbouleh, but it’s grain-centric rather than herb-forward. It inspired this tomatoey bulgur side. We build flavor into the dish in a couple ways. We toast the bulgur—make sure to use coarse bulgur, not fine—to accentuate its sweet, wheaty notes. Then we brown the tomato paste for deeper color and greater flavor intensity. To make this more substantial, we like to stir blanched green beans into the finished bulgur and finish it with any or all of the optional garnishes.