Булгур с овощами оказался сытнее, чем рис без соуса.

Because булгур is the subject of the sentence — the thing being described.

In Булгур с овощами оказался сытнее..., the sentence is saying something about bulgur, so булгур stays in the nominative singular.

A rough grammatical breakdown is:

• Булгур с овощами = the subject
• оказался = the verb
• сытнее = the predicate adjective/comparative

So nominative is used because this is the main noun doing the “being” or “turning out to be.”

The preposition с in the meaning with normally requires the instrumental case.

So:

• овощи = nominative plural
• овощами = instrumental plural

That is why you get:

• с овощами = with vegetables

This is a very common pattern:

• чай с лимоном = tea with lemon
• мясо с картошкой = meat with potatoes
• рис с овощами = rice with vegetables

Оказался means something like turned out to be or proved to be.

So the sentence does not just state a neutral fact. It suggests a result, discovery, or surprising outcome:

• Булгур с овощами был сытнее... = Bulgur with vegetables was more filling...
• Булгур с овощами оказался сытнее... = Bulgur with vegetables turned out to be more filling...

Using оказался often implies that this became clear after experience, comparison, or observation.

In the past tense, Russian verbs agree in gender and number with the subject.

Here, the head noun is булгур, which is masculine singular, so the verb is:

• оказался = masculine singular past

Compare:

• каша оказалась = porridge turned out to be... (feminine)
• блюдо оказалось = the dish turned out to be... (neuter)
• овощи оказались = the vegetables turned out to be... (plural)

Even though с овощами is part of the phrase, the main noun is still булгур, so the verb matches булгур.

Сытнее is the comparative form of сытный, which means filling, substantial, or literally something that makes you feel full.

So:

• сытный = filling
• сытнее = more filling

This is similar to English filling → more filling.

Russian comparatives can often be formed with endings like -ее / -ей or irregularly in other ways. Here:

• сытный → сытнее

You could think of сытнее as meaning more satisfying in terms of hunger.

Чем is the standard word used after a comparative to mean than.

So:

• сытнее, чем рис без соуса = more filling than rice without sauce

This is the normal Russian pattern:

• лучше, чем... = better than...
• быстрее, чем... = faster than...
• интереснее, чем... = more interesting than...

So чем is the direct equivalent of English than in this kind of sentence.

After чем in a comparison, Russian typically uses the noun in the form you would expect for the compared item, often effectively like a nominative comparison phrase.

So:

• чем рис без соуса = than rice without sauce

That is normal and natural.

Learners sometimes expect another case because Russian case usage can be complex, but with comparative + чем, the compared noun phrase is usually left in a straightforward form:

• дороже, чем кофе
• лучше, чем чай
• сытнее, чем рис без соуса

There are other comparative patterns in Russian, but in this sentence чем + noun phrase is the standard one.

The preposition без means without and requires the genitive case.

So:

• соус = nominative singular
• соуса = genitive singular

That gives:

• без соуса = without sauce

This is a very important pattern to remember:

• без сахара = without sugar
• без воды = without water
• без мяса = without meat
• без соуса = without sauce

Russian often omits repeated words when they are already understood from context.

The full idea is something like:

• Булгур с овощами оказался сытнее, чем рис без соуса оказался сытным
  or
• ...чем рис без соуса был сытным

But that would sound heavy and unnatural. Russian, like English, usually leaves the repeated part out:

• more filling than rice without sauce

So the shorter form is completely normal.

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, but the given order is natural and clear.

Булгур с овощами оказался сытнее, чем рис без соуса presents:

1. the first food item
2. the result
3. the comparison target

That is a very standard structure.

You could rearrange parts for emphasis, but the neutral version is the one you see here. For example, moving things around might sound more contrastive or stylistic. For learners, the given order is the safest one to imitate.

No. They describe different things.

• сытнее = more filling, more satisfying to your hunger
• вкуснее = tastier

So this sentence is not saying the bulgur tasted better. It says it made you feel fuller.

This distinction is very common in food-related Russian:

• вкусная еда = tasty food
• сытная еда = filling food

A dish can be:

• вкусное, но не очень сытное = tasty, but not very filling
• сытное, но не особенно вкусное = filling, but not especially tasty

Russian does not have articles like a and the.

So булгур, овощи, рис, and соус appear without any word corresponding directly to an article.

Whether something is understood as a, the, or just a general category depends on context.

So in English, this sentence might be translated in different ways depending on the situation:

• Bulgur with vegetables turned out to be more filling than rice without sauce.
• The bulgur with vegetables turned out to be more filling than the rice without sauce.

Russian leaves that distinction to context rather than marking it with articles.