Mujadara

Ingrédients

1/2 cup green lentils. Black lentils are more authentic, but green works great. (NEVER RED!)

1 cup medium grain rice

Noodles to taste (no more than 1/2 cup) (look up ‘bambino vermicelli’ on amazon)

Olive oil

1 onion (yellow is what we normally use, but we have used red before)

Sumac spice

Salt and pepper

Instructions

In a large pot, add lentils and around 4-5 cups of water. Add lots of salt and black pepper to the water, and cover with a lid to keep water from evaporating. Boil until the lentils are cooked completely (soft all the way through). Drain water into a separate bowl and save it. You will reuse it when cooking the rice.

In a mixing bowl, add your rice and soak it in warm water for no more than 15 minutes. If the water becomes too cold, you may drain it and add more warm water.

Drain the water the rice has been soaking in, and add the now cooked lentils to the mixed bowl. Mix them together gently as to not break apart the lentils. You may also add some more salt and pepper at this stage.

In the large pot, add your noodles and olive oil. Just enough olive oil that your noodles are completely coated, but not drowning. On low heat, brown the noodles slightly. Be very careful, the noodles will burn extremely easily. To avoid them burning, stir them constantly. They will go from not brown to brown very fast, and it can take a few minutes to get them to that point. If the noodles burn, throw them out and make a new batch.

When the noodles are browned, dump in the lentils and rice. Cook all together on medium heat for 5 minutes or less. Stir constantly or very often so it doesn’t burn.

Add the saved lentil water to the pot. It should cover everything by 1/2 a centimeter, or the top of your pinky. If the water doesn’t cover everything, add more water. Just make sure to salt and pepper it more if you add water. Cover the pot with a lid and cook on high heat until it boils, then turn it to low heat and leave until cooked. When it is done, the rice should be soft as well as the noodles and lentils.

When it is almost ready, cut up an onion into slices, roughly 1/4 an inch in width. In a pan, caramelize the onion slices with a little bit of olive oil and sumac spice. There should be a good amount of sumac, but it is also to taste. I suggest adding the sumac sometime after the half way mark of the onions cooking, you don’t want it to burn.

Serve the Mujadara with a scoop of the onions on top. (Or several scoops if you love onions like me) Done! Enjoy your Mujadara!

Notes

Serve with salad

From Siwar