Grilled Portabella Bulgur "Burgers"

This recipe looked wonderful when I found it on Epicurious. I love grilled portabellas and I was excited to find another use for zucchini and bell peppers.

To put it mildly, I absolutely destroyed the portabellas. I am going to blame it on being out of grilling practice. The mushrooms were charred, but very firm--not at all soft like they should have been. The filling was incredible--I ate leftovers for several meals. It was great. I'll probably try this recipe again because of how good the bulgur filling was. Next time I'll make sure I have the grill on very, very low heat (maybe even use indirect heat for a little part of the time...) and hopefully these will turn out better. Curtis also loved the filling and he could tolerate the mushrooms (which is more than I could do). J ate a little filling and M worked on part of a mushroom.

Grilled Portabella and Bulgar "Burgers"
from Gourmet

For tomato vinaigrette:
2 lg garlic clove
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes
1/2 c parsley
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c red wine vinegar
1 T chopped fresh rosemary

For bulgar burgers
6 - 8 large portabella mushrooms, stems removed
1 sm onion, cut lengthwise into 1/2" wedges
2 med bell peppers, quartered lengthwise
1 med zucchini, halved lengthwise
1 1/2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 c boiling water
1 c bulgur
1/4 c pine nuts, toasted
2 1/2 oz arugula (4 c)
1 firm-ripe small avocado

To make vinaigrette, drop garlic into food processor with motor running, and finely chop. Add tomatoes, parsley, oil, vinegar, rosemary, 1/2 t salt, and 1/4 t pepper and pulse until tomatoes finely chopped, but not pureed.

To make the salad, toss the cleaned portabellas with a 1/2 c of the vinaigrette in a 13 x 9" baking dish and let stand, turning occasionally, 20 minutes. Toss onions, bell peppers, and zucchini with oil, 1/4 t salt, 1/8 t pepper. Oil grill rack, then grill vegetables, covered on a preheated gas grill to medium heat, until tender (6 - 8 minutes for peppers, 6 - 10 minutes for zucchini, 8 - 12 minutes for onion wedges, and 12 - 15 minutes for portabellas). Transfer the portabellas to a plate and the remaining vegetables to a bowl as they finish cooking. Cool slightly and then coarsely chop onions, peppers, and zucchini.

While vegetables cook, pour boiling water over bulgur with 1/2 t salt in a large bowl and let stand until water is absorbed and bulgur is tender, about 5 minutes. Drain in a sieve if any water remains. Add vegetables to bulgur with pine nuts and remaining vinaigrette and toss.

Put arugula on a platter. Top with an upside down portabella. Pack bulgur mixture into a cup measure and then unmold on top of portabella. Top with another portabella, right side up. serve with an avocado quarter.