Mujadara — Lentils, Rice and Onions
Lentils and rice cooked together under a thick layer of deeply caramelised onions — Levantine comfort food at its plainest and best.
Method
- Rinse the lentils and simmer them in plenty of unsalted water for 15 minutes, until just tender but still firm. They will finish cooking with the rice. Drain and set aside.
- While they cook, fry the onions. Heat the oil in a wide, heavy pan over medium heat and add the onions with a pinch of salt.
- Cook for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring every few minutes. They will soften, then turn gold, then deep brown. Keep going past the point that feels right: the colour is where all the flavour in this dish comes from.
- Lift about a third of the onions out with a slotted spoon, spread them on paper and reserve them for the top; they crisp as they cool.
- Add the cumin, cinnamon and allspice to the onions remaining in the pan and stir for 30 seconds.
- Add the drained lentils and the rinsed rice and stir to coat everything in the dark, spiced oil.
- Pour in the water, add 1½ teaspoons of salt and plenty of black pepper, and bring to a boil. Taste the liquid and adjust the salt now.
- Cover, reduce to the lowest heat and cook for 20 minutes without lifting the lid, then rest off the heat for 10 minutes.
- Fluff gently with a fork, pile onto a platter and cover with the reserved crisp onions. Serve warm or at room temperature with yoghurt.
How to make Mujadara — Lentils, Rice and Onions
Mujadara is built from three cheap ingredients and tastes far better than that suggests. It appears across the Levant in slightly different forms — some soupy, some with coarse bulgur instead of rice — and it is as common on a weeknight table as during fasting periods.
The onions are the whole dish
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Half an hour of patient frying turns four onions into something dark, sweet and almost jammy. Rushing over high heat gives burnt edges and raw centres; a bitter batch will carry through every grain of rice. Watch them closely for the last five minutes.
Stagger the cooking
Lentils take longer than rice, so they get a head start and are added half-cooked. Added raw at the same time as the rice, they stay hard; cooked through first, they collapse into mush.
Season the water
Once the lid goes on, there is no further chance to season. Taste the cooking liquid before covering: it should taste slightly too salty on its own, because the rice and lentils will absorb all of it.
Serving
Yoghurt is the traditional partner, its sourness cutting the sweetness of the onions, with a sharp cucumber and tomato salad alongside. Mujadara is just as good cold the next day.
Traditional Lebanese and wider Levantine cookery; mujadara has long been associated with simple, everyday eating. Editorially researched from widely documented preparations, and not kitchen-tested by Axadle.
Naturally free from gluten, dairy, egg and nuts.
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